(March 20, 2020)
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President All Karachi Industrial Alliance (AKIA), Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister, Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday said coronavirus has started damaging the already fragile economy.
The central banks across the world have been cutting interest rates while the government are offering packages to boost economic activities but the situation in Pakistan is otherwise.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that now K-Electric has started asking the industrial sector for an additional sum of Rs5 billion under the Industrial Support Package Adjustment which should be noticed by Prime Minister Imran Khan as it will bankrupt the industries facing multiple problems.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that Karachi is supporting millions of people while contributing 50 percent of the exports and 54 percent of the indirect taxes which must be spared.
The former minister noted that industrialists are already under pressure and now K-Electric is asking for the electricity consumed July 2019 to December 2019 which is constitutionally and morally wrong as well as illegal.
He said that the global recession has reduced the demand hitting out export sector, therefore, the issue of excessive billion should be settled without delay as milking business community on one pretext or other should be stopped.
He said that closure of the industrial sector will result in heavy losses and massive unemployment.
The veteran business leader noted that import and export to Afghanistan is suspended while hundreds of containers are stranded on both sides of the borders creating problems for businessmen and creating shortages of important items.
Both the countries should initiate measures like spraying etc. and allow bilateral trade to continue to provide relief to the masses, he said.
