From Zeeshan Mirza
KARACHI: While welcoming a significant reduction in petrol price, businesspeople have underlined the need for evolving a stable policy, slashing electricity and gas tariffs, and eliminating gas outages and painfully low pressure.
“If the government formulates a sustainable policy for at least three months, this decrease will benefit the common people. I also plead for a reduction in power and gas tariffs immediately as the winter season is around the corner, when even middle-class people are unable to use geysers for hot water,” All Karachi Tajir Ittehad Chairman Atique Mir said while talking to media in the backdrop of a substantial decrease in the petrol price.
He said that both electricity and gas are necessary for life and business, so people are forced to steal them, if they (gas and electricity) are out of their reach because of high tariffs. He asked the government to stabilise both tariffs and reduce energy prices further at a time of soaring inflation.
Meanwhile, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) also appreciated the steep drop in petrol price in their respective statements.
Owing to the decreasing trend in the international market and following appreciation of Pakistani rupee against the US dollar, the government decided to revise the consumer price of petrol from Rs323.38 per litre to Rs283.38, a decline of Rs40. It also scaled down the price of high-speed diesel from Rs318.18 per litre to Rs303.18, making a reduction of Rs15, with effect from October 16.
KCCI President Iftikhar Ahmed Sheikh said that it was a right decision taken by caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar to slash prices in view of the strengthening rupee and decline in oil prices in the international market. It would not only provide relief to the people and businessmen, who had been facing the rising inflation, it would also bolster the national economy, he stressed.
Sheikh said that it was the second consecutive cut in petroleum prices, which would certainly help in bringing down inflation to some extent, but an effective price control mechanism and strict enforcement of government prices for various household products must be ensured with a view to providing significant relief to the poor.
He appealed to the government to ensure a decrease in transport fares by devising a formula so that all people could benefit from it.
“The business community eulogise the effective, timely and crucial role played by the Chief of Army Staff in swiftly reducing economic uncertainty, bringing back stability and fostering positive sentiment in the country. Controlling speculative trading of dollar and putting a stop to its smuggling are the most effective and meaningful steps in the right direction,” said FPCCI President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh.
