Islamabad: March 18 , 2024 : Chairman Central M. Akram Farid of employers’ organization Employers Federation of Pakistan in an emergency meeting with the manufacturers said that the country’s industry has reached to the brink of destruction due to the increase in electricity and gas prices. He said with costly power and gas not only the country’s economy has been affected, but unemployment has also increased manifold . He said that due to expensive electricity and gas, where the cost of production has increased so much that it is not possible to run the industry. He added that iron and steel industry whose path is material electricity is also suffering substantially.
Mian Akram Farid warned if the government did not pay attention, most of the steel industry would have closed down, and millions of people related to it would have become unemployed and the hearths of thousands of families would have gone cold. He noted that the government of Pakistan should formulate a policy according to the ground realities and look at its factors so that the Pakistani industry can come out of the crisis.
The business leader said due to the decrease in Pakistan’s textile exports, about 7 million workers will be out of jobs. Granted, the iron ore industry has been hit the hardest due to the fall in power prices, more than half of the steel industry has closed down, and the remaining ones will soon close down due to the increase in production costs. urged the government to reduce the interest rate and fix the dollar rate and try to overcome the problem of falling value of the rupee so that the industry can operate, that the economic and business environment is at a turning point. It has reached a point where the business community justifies the demand to impose an economic emergency to end the economic uncertainty. Mian Akram Farid added that businesses cannot run profitably under such harsh and unfavorable conditions, he suggested that the FBR should focus on reducing high tax rates in the upcoming budget to broaden the tax base and increase overall tax revenue. It will help to improve. The business community will fully cooperate with the new government in its efforts to accelerate the pace of public sector development projects in a timely manner to further improve our infrastructure that will facilitate the growth of commercial and industrial activities and the revival of the economy. Said that we have to take swift steps to make the country a center of manufacturing activities and a paradise for investors like other countries in the region, one of which is reduction in markup rate, the officials stressed on the State Bank of Pakistan. That they bring down the markup rate keeping in mind the other economics of the area.
