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Press Release

LCCI flays hike in electricity, gas tariffs

The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry has flayed massive increase in electricity and gas tariffs by National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) and Oil & Gas Regulatry Authority (OGRA) and termed it another nail in the coffin of dieing export-oriented industry.
In a statement issued here, the LCCI President Abdul Basit, Senior Vice President Amjad Ali Jawa and Vice President Muhammad Nasir Hameed Khan said that NEPRA has allowed power distribution companies (DISCOS) to charge from consumer heavy system losses amounting to over Rs.162 billions in a year that is a sheer injustice with the industry while OGRA has also dropped gas bomb that is nothing else but to destroy the industrial base.
“It is a matter of surprise that instead of recovering dues, NEPRA is facilitating and encouraging the defaulters by writing-offs and putting whole burden on the shoulders of consumers”, they said.
The LCCI office-bearers said that repeated irrational increases in power and gas tariffs are not solution to power sector problems but the government would have to address inefficiencies in the system. They said that NEPRA is continuousl adding up a staggering amount as circular debt due to inefficiency in collection of electricity dues and its failure to stop power theft.
 “These inefficiencies are actually an unjust tax on honest power consumers. The industrial sector as a whole pays its dues in-time and there is no line losses/theft in most of the industrial estates and industrial estates in Lahore are one example.”
They said that power sector planners should take cue from the efficient distribution companies (Discos) where line losses are at the lowest.  They said that the business community is shocked that instead of taking measures to control line losses and enhance cheap power generation up to capacity, policies were being evolved to add to the miseries of traders.
They said negative growth witnessed by the exports sector is indeed an eye opener and a wake-up call for the policy makers. They said that Pakistan had already lost a number of international markets and the proposed increase in power tariff would make local goods uncompetitive.