On Monday, Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain said increasing the price of natural gas for the industrial sector will escalate inflation.

After a record hike in petroleum prices, the government is now raising the price of gas for the industrial sector, which will lead to a sharp rise in inflation.

It will bankrupt hundreds of businesses, increase unemployment and reduce revenue, which will affect the FBR’s targets, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that the government should reconsider the implications of withdrawing the cheap gas facility for the industrial sector.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that decisions taken under pressure from the IMF would affect the people and the economy.

He said that it is wrong to delay the procurement of LNG and later put the entire burden of losses on the masses.

He said that due to the global energy crisis, the LNG is five times costlier than the local gas, but concerned officials’ incompetence cannot be ignored.

Yesterday, an agreement was reached with Qatar Petroleum to buy gas at 30.6 per MMBTU, which is astonishing and unacceptable.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that the government is set to hike gas prices for the industrial sector. It will be made costly for the domestic industry, which will further increase people’s anxiety.

He said that increasing the gas price will reduce the losses of this sector while the circular debt of the gas sector will also be reduced.

At present, local gas is being supplied to the export sector at Rs 820 to Rs 852 per unit, gas to the general industry at Rs 1,055 per unit, while the CNG sector is being provided at Rs 1,370 per unit.

The demand for domestic gas is steadily increasing while its production is declining. The country is facing a shortfall of four to five hundred cubic feet daily, which will increase with the severity of winter, and people and industry will face severe shortages.

He further said that the private sector has been working on the project of importing gas since 2011. Still, the bureaucracy is creating hurdles for the private sector to maintain the monopoly.