By Asad Cheema
ISLAMABAD: Profiteers have started hoarding essential items to bleed masses white during the holy month of Ramadan which should be noticed by the authorities, a business leader said Thursday.
With eight days left in the advent of holy month of Ramazan, the profiteers get active to gain maximum profits and rates on daily use items were noticing upward trend in different markets, said Shahid Rasheed Butt, former President ICCI.
The country has become a heaven for hoarders and profiteers where plunder, unethical practices and organised crime has been allowed in the name of the business, he added. He said that prices that sugar mafia has minted billions but it has also stopped payments to the growers, the prices of pulses are increasing despite tax relief and reduced transportation charges while the poultry prices in being increased artificially.
He noted that the highly tilted contracts were signed with independent power producers for five years but they are intact after 25 years which is amazing. Clauses like payment in US dollars and capacity charges were included in the contracts which pushed country under the mountain of debt. These contracts added billions to the coffers of influential while pushed power sector and country to the brink of bankruptcy.
