Pakistan: New power, petroleum tariff to cost Rs 360b

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Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Secretary Information Sumsan Bokhari said on Friday that the new electricity and petroleum products’ tariff would charge Rs 360 billion from the masses. He termed the tariff as an attempt meant to fill the pockets of the owners of oil companies who were usually observed sitting in high-level meetings to formulate energy policies. Bokhari said the representative organisations of the textile sector and other industries, commerce chambers and the civil society had rejected the new tariff which would make Pakistani products less competitive in the international market due to the rise in the cost of production. He said, “The exports of the country and resultantly the economy will suffer, affecting all citizens,” adding that the phenomenal raise in the tariff just before Eid was unjustified as it would greatly affect the capacity of the masses to observe Eid with the traditional religious fervor and enthusiasm. He demanded that the names of the owners who had been paid billions of rupees to clear the outstanding payments of the independent power plants (IPPs) should be made public so the people could know the beneficiaries of the generosity of the present government. He deplored that even after heavy payments to the IPPs, the people of the country continued to face load shedding even during Iftar, Sehr and Taraweeh, contrary to the government’s claims. He reminded that during the previous PPP-led government Pakistan turned into a wheat exporter from being a wheat importer. He said it was due to the correct policy of the government which included Rs 2 subsidy per unit to the farmers on the tube wells. The present government had stopped the subsidy and compounded the problem by introducing the new tariff, he said. The tariff would stifle the agriculture sector, he said. He said the PPP would stage an agitation against the government by mobilising the public against the price hike. “The PPP would not allow the cronies of the capitalists to adversely affect the poor masses,” he said.