PESHAWAR: Former President of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry and vice chairman of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Board of Investment and Trade, Senator Mohsin Aziz has slammed the federal government decision regarding proposed increase in gas tariff for industry by six percent from next month, and termed it completely unjustified with smaller federating units, particularly terrorism-affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In a statement, he said KP has faced number of disadvantages, due to far away from port-city couple with suffering from prolonged terrorism. He further said the province is striving to convert disadvantages into opportunities by utilization of its abundant oil, and gas reserves along with other natural resources. However, he said that federal government was intentionally taking back all these advantages of natural resources under a pre-plan.
However, he said the crude oil prices have come to the lowest level in last six years, adding that the increase in gas tariff will render this indigenous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa gas unviable because of the increase instead of decrease due to petroleum prices.
The implementation of Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) at the rate of Rs 100 and Rs 200 mmcfd is also making this resources out of the range of industrial and captive power producer. Therefore, he said not only imposition of GIDC be deferred but also the purposed increase shall not imposed as other including the industries, export and employment would get serious irreparable lose.
It is pertinent to mentioning that the government is all set to increase gas tariff by six percent from September 1, 2015 to avert the economic collapse of the both gas utilities. However, there will be no raise in gas tariff for domestic consumers.
