Bureau Report
KARACHI: Chairman of National Business Group of FPCCI, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain expressed concerns over increase in inflation despite a fall in the value of the US dollar and a stronger rupee.
In an interaction with business community here on Monday, he said that the cost of doing business of importers of raw material, finished goods and food items have reduced substantially but the benefit is not being transferred to the masses which should be noticed.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the new wave of inflation before the holy month of Ramadan should be controlled to provide some relief to masses facing eroded buying power due to unprecedented inflation.
The government should reject the application of gas companies for a gas tariff hike up to 220 percent as this mini-budget will destroy the economy, he added. The business leader said that the dollar has lost around 10 percent of its value against the rupee since August 2020 which has added to the profit of importers but the consumers were deprived of the benefit.
The strengthened rupee has reduced the import cost of cement, steel, iron, building material, food items, sugar, flour and many other things which must be probed, Mian Zahid said, adding that cooking oil and ghee was available for Rs250 per kg in August 2020 which is now being sold at Rs300 per kg.
