According to the record of industries and production, the government is playing its part fully to help the business community to meet export aims said Rana Tanveer Hussain. He said this during a meeting on Friday with the delegation of FPCCI, headed by its President Atif Ikram Sheikh.
Thus, within the framework of the discussion of action plans and programs, the delegation expressed concerns on energy matters. Sheikh also underscored that energy prices have to be more or less similar to those of the neighboring countries. He opined that if the electricity tariffs were to be lowered, the business people could easily get the target of exporting $ 60 billion.
Minister Hussain also said that the government is establishing special economic zones that are meant to Open the floodgates of investment and exports meaningful for economic development. He stated that the government is working to solve all the problems associated with the industry.
Newspapers quoted the FPCCI delegation as saying that high energy costs posed a bottleneck for industrialization and export-led growth. Some of them mentioned that due to these problems, 25 to 30 percent of industries have been closed already and the number may increase in the future if the situation does not improve.
The Independent Power Producers (IPPs) were asked to change some of the accords that are being active in spite of the non-responsiveness of the plants which are involved in the collection of considerable amounts as the capacity charges. They asked for a forensic audit of IPPs and recommended that new rates be negotiated in IPP contracts.
To this, the Minister of Investment Hussain assured the FPCCI delegation that he would bring their complaints to the attention of whoever has jurisdiction over them.
