LAHORE
\nThe Disposable Food Packaging Association (DFPA) has said that high cost of doing business has proved to be dangerous for businesses, as ever-increasing cost of production is the real threat to the economy amidst frequent upward revisions in policy rate and continuous fluctuations in rupee against dollar.
\nThe DFPA President Ahsan Shahid, in a statement issued here today, said that constant hike in power tariff has pushed the electricity prices higher and added to the already soaring cost of trade and industry.
\nHe asked the government to shut down all expensive oil-based power plants to ensure availability of cheaper energy for consumers. He condemned the government for shifting power distribution companies\u2019 inefficiencies\u2019 burden to the consumers by jacking up the tariff under the guise of Fuel Charges Adjustment.
\nAhsan Shahid observed that the aggressive economic measures, high borrowing rates, inflation, oppressive taxation and unstable currency have been negatively affecting running businesses.
\nWith a view to deal with fiscal challenges, he asked the economic managers to work on the three-way strategy by implementing short-term goals that will help to keep generating resources for smooth fiscal operations, medium-term goals where the they should focus on financial inclusion, documenting the economy by designing a system where all businesses can be registered and properly document their income including collection of sales tax, initiating the process of privatisation as well as improving governance by introducing reforms in each sector. As a long-term goal, the country must focus on improving its human capital, and revamping IT sectors by extending facilitations and providing all the requisite supports.
\nThe DFPA President stated that the significant jump in electricity prices and hike in gas tariffs to meet the IMF condition will put additional burden of billions of rupee on consumers.
\nHe observed that it is unfortunate that the authorities in all governments continued to approve billions of rupees\u2019 additional burden on consumers through a direct tariff increase and an indirect increase through the withdrawal of subsidies given to exporters and farmers earlier.
\nHe said that the government liquidity and external vulnerability risks are elevated and there remain considerable risks around its ability to secure required financing to fully meet its needs for the next few years.
\nIt is to be noted that the authorities had pledged to stop any further rise in circular debt, adding that around Rs250 billion was added to the gas circular debt annually though the actual figures are available with Petroleum Division. However, if 11.5 percent price hike for SNGPL and 11 percent tariff for SSGC was not implemented then the circular debt will rise to Rs740 billion.
\nAhsan Shahid said that the economic managers did not have any pragmatic plan to address this liability, apart from asking for more loans to repay existing debt. Likewise, the target for current financial year\u2019s exports is too low to meet the country\u2019s revenue. The conventional approach of focusing solely on improving exports while pursuing a passive and imprudent foreign policy towards neighboring countries, poses a significant challenge in meeting export targets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LAHORE The Disposable Food Packaging Association (DFPA) has said that high cost of doing business has proved to be dangerous for businesses, as ever-increasing cost of production is the real threat to the economy amidst frequent upward revisions in policy rate and continuous fluctuations in rupee against dollar. The DFPA President Ahsan Shahid, in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-381896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\n