The Chairman of the FPCCI Advisory Board and National Business Group Pakistan, the President of the Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain said on Monday that the current electricity price is harmful to production, business, employment, and exports.
He said that the destructive policy of continuous increases in energy prices makes it impossible to reduce inflation and improve people’s living conditions.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that official data on inflation do not match ground realities, as people are suffering more than the authorities indicate.
Speaking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that essential commodities cannot be affordable when energy prices continuously increase. He observed that the price of all essential commodities is subject to the cost of energy and transport, and he observed that giving some kind of relief to the people by increasing the cost of energy can only be possible through rhetoric.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the electricity prices and taxes on them have affected the people badly, and they have been unable to meet their other monthly expenses.
People are taking out loans and selling jewellery and other household items, but this method of raising funds to pay bills cannot last for long.
Now, the situation is that electricity prices have pushed forty per cent of people below the poverty line, and their number continues to increase. Instead of eradicating poverty, the impoverished face trials.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that Jamaat-e-Islami’s protest against electricity rates and taxes was a very positive step. This protest was not intended for political purposes but rather to alleviate the nation’s suffering, and those who conspired with IPPs have exposed themselves by not participating.
As Jamaat-e-Islami’s protest over the government’s assurances ended, the government proved its helplessness in front of the people by increasing the electricity rate by 2.56 rupees.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that in the current situation, neither the government is doing anything to reduce inflation nor are the efforts of the State Bank getting any benefit.
We can reduce inflation only by ignoring the mafia’s interests and initiating trade with India, which offers numerous food items at significantly lower prices than Pakistan.
The importation of food from India will break the back of the Pakistani mafia, which is not acceptable to some people.
Similarly, smugglers only benefit from the cheaper goods in Iran and Afghanistan. Legal trade with neighbours can somewhat balance imports and exports, saving millions of dollars.
