PESHAWAR
Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry acting President Ijaz Khan Afridi termed frequent increase in power tariff as detrimental for economy, businesses and industrial growth and warned business community will compel in protest if prices will continue to rise.
Ijaz Afridi said in a statement here on Friday that traders have caught up in issues of a mire owing to implementation of ‘flawed’ economic policies and a highly strained situation.
He continued to say that the government had added miseries to the traders’ community by additional taxation measures in the financial budget 2023-24.
He asked the government to revise power tariffs immediately.
KP is producing electricity low-cost wherein electricity is unavailable to domestic, commercial and industrial consumers despite payment of power bills with heavy taxes, Mr Afridi remarked.
He said after the consistent electricity tariff hike, the cost of industrial production has massively increased which had brought inflation and hit poor people of the country. Also, he added it had been made hard to run businesses and industries after collecting heavy tariffs in power bills.
Afridi severely criticized the government for failure in economic revival and alleviating miseries of traders’ community. He said additional taxes worth Rs438billion in FY 2023-24 had been imposed, which was clear evidence of government flopped economic policies.
He said if the government desired to put the national economy on the right track, it should take proactive steps for resolving issues which were being faced by the business community.
The SCCI’s acting chief said the strike call given by the petroleum association was manifestation of weak economic policies and asked the government to accept all genuine demands of the association because the business and industrial activities would be affected by suspension of supply of petroleum products and will also bring negative impacts on the economy.
Afridi also expressed concern over the government’s decision to collect Radio fees in power bills.
He said only taxes were imposed while consumers were faced with hour-long electricity loadshedding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“How the national economy will flourish and how the business community will be prosperous and give a boost to their business and industries in the prevailing circumstances”?
The SCCI’s acting chief asked the government to implement business-friendly policies to lead the country toward sustainable economic growth and development and proactive steps should be taken to resolve business community issues.
