Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said governed has planned to reduce power sector losses as well as circular debt by increasing the power tariff which should be reconsidered as it will burden masses, business and add to inflation.
Government should consider reducing it expanses which have jumped by 75 percent over the last three years, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the government had promised to keep power tariff unchanged during the current fiscal but it is now increasing the price of electricity to restart IMF programme after which World Bank and ADB will also be willing to extend loans.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that the finance minister is scheduled to visit Washington next month to participate in the annual meeting of World Bank and IMF where he will inform the lenders about power tariff hike for favourable outcome.
He said that the government had promised to increase power tariff by Rs5.65 per unit which would have burdened masses by Rs900 billion but it backtracked resulting in tensions with the lender.
Cordial relations with lenders require burdening masses by Rs 900 billion which will damage every sector of the economy and every person, he said, adding that government should control line losses, theft, focus on recovery, reforms and transparency rather than adopting the shortcut of tariff hike.
He said that hundreds of statement regarding reducing expenses were released during the last three years but the same jumped by 75 percent during the period.
Current expenses during 2017.18 were Rs4.2 trillion which have now jumped to Rs7.5 trillion while domestic borrowing has surged from Rs16.5 trillion to Rs25 trillion which are increasing rapidly.
