(December 18, 2020)
Chairman of National Business Group of FPCCI, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday said failure to buy wheat, sugar and LNG in time have burdened masses by trillions of rupees.
Different cartels are also bleeding the masses white with no ray of hope in sight, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that masses are now facing an LNG crisis following the wheat, sugar and other disasters making life difficult for the masses.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that now masses are braving the crisis of poultry and vegetables while consuming one of the costliest imported gas.
The LNG cargoes were not booked in summer as routine and now expensive gas is being purchased which is a record in the last six years in the Asian market and masses will pay the price for the blunder.
He noted that the gas sector circular debt has also surpassed Rs350 billion which is increasing in absence of reforms and vacant positions in important departments.
Establishing gas distribution companies on district or division level may improve things in the gas sector but such proposals have never been entertained.
Similarly, the private sector is being discouraged systematically from importing gas which is a conspiracy against the masses who deserve affordable gas.
He noted that power sector circular debt has reached to almost Rs2.5 trillion and it is increasing in absence of any plan to tackle it. The government will be unable to secure IMF loan in absence of a plan; increasing electricity price will add to inflation while subsidy will add to the deficit.
The claims to control circular debt have not materialised as reforms are being ignored in this critical sector.
