LAHORE: Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Saturday called for upgradation of power transmission and distribution system to get rid of the issues of suspension of
electricity supply.
They said that power failures in recent days plunged most parts of the country into darkness and the situation could be further aggravated if steps were not taken on war footing.
It was a very good sign that the government was well aware of the rising demand of electricity and working on a number of power projects days and nights but at the same time, upgradation of the existing power distribution system should be ensure to bear additional load, said LCCI President Arshad.
He urged the government not to tolerate any laxity towards the upgradation of power transmission and distribution system as any negligence could cause unbearable loss to the trade, industry
and economy.
He also urged the government to ensure early completion of ongoing power projects, which would not only keep the industrial wheel moving but economic growth was also linked with sufficient and cheap energy.
The LCCI office-bearer said that business community did not have any doubts about the seriousness of present regime in solving the energy crisis as it had already started a number of power projects but there was a dire need of their completion in the shortest possible time as an acute shortage of electricity was hitting the economic activities hard.
The LCCI president said that timely completion of hydropower projects was vital for mitigating water and power shortfall, asserting that due to longer hour power outages, the investment scenario was being spoiled in the country and existing industrial units had curtailed their productions.
He said the government should exploit all available options to stop unscheduled power cuts jacking up unemployment graph in the industry.
The power outages, he added, also led to increased level of raw material wastage and making production process non-profitable.
“Now the leading industrial units were experiencing losses despite being managed professionally,” he maintained.
Arshad said electricity shortage caused flight of capital and relocation of industrial units to countries like Bangladesh and Malaysia, besides reducing government revenues drastically.
He was of the view that unemployment and industrial closures always give birth to lawlessness and anarchy, so the government should share its energy plan with LCCI, and reset its priorities for power generation.
LCCI Senior Vice President Almas Haider said the private sector was engine of growth and just like developed countries, Pakistan should also facilitate from it to the maximum. He said that promotion of alternate energy resources would definitely curtail the burden from conventional energy system therefore the government should bring down duties and taxes on the equipment being used for power generation through alternate energy resources.
DAILY TIMES
YEMI
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