LAHORE: The electricity consumers, including domestic ones and the business community, have criticised the government for frequent raises in the electricity tariff and sought immediate relief by withdrawal of the recent increase in the power tariff.

They slated the government for not taking action to stop the power outages being observed in Lahore and the rest of the province on various pretexts like technical and administrative issues.

“It seems that the government has no plan to provide ease in our routine life being marred by the raise in power tariff, skyrocketing prices of commodities and other civic issues,” Adnan, a resident of Johar Town, commented on the situation while talking to Dawn on Saturday.

“They (the rulers) have turned brutal and they are doing everything possible to crush the common man,” he lamented.

Demand govt take back recent hike; LCCI seeks withdrawal of free electricity from certain segments

Another consumer, Shahid, a resident of a locality near Shalimar, said the electricity bill of December he paid recently was over Rs7,000 despite it being the winter.

“In the same month last year, our bill was Rs4,500 but now it has surged to Rs7,000. It means there is around a 40pc increase in the tariff in one year,” he argued.

While rejecting hike in the power tariff, Shahid also criticised the government as well as the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) for observing unannounced, forced as well as scheduled loadshedding.

The business community also expressed grave concerns at yet another increase in power tariff and urged the government to immediately withdraw the decision as it was a big blow to the trade and industry.

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has jacked up the power tariff by Rs4.12 per unit on the pretext of the fuel charges adjustment (FCA) for the month of November 2023 and issued a notification in this regard which would soar the electricity cost further.

In a statement, Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) President Kashif Anwar, Senior Vice President Zafar Mahmood Chaudhry and Vice President Adnan Khalid Butt rejected the hike in the power tariff.

They said that unannounced outages were adding fuel to fire and hitting the manufacturing sector hard. They said the repeated hike in the power tariff was badly affecting exports and local businesses alike. Above all, the dollar/rupee parity is still beyond the capacity of manufacturers.

The LCCI office-bearers said the government had increased the electricity prices many times which was sheer injustice as the majority of people had been sent bills many times more than their monthly income.

They demanded that the provision of free electricity to certain segments should be withdrawn immediately at least until the end of economic challenges and enormous debt burden the country was currently facing as it could afford to provide such free-of-cost facilities.

The representatives of the businesses sector said since electricity was essential for industries, the manufacturing sector would completely collapse if the government continued increasing power tariff besides carrying out outages.

The LCCI office-bearer said that despite the raise in electricity prices by several hundred percent, the circular debt of the country could not be controlled while the energy crisis has also become worse due to which the industrial production will reach its lowest level.

“The cost of electricity in Pakistan is already very high compared to other countries in the region and Pakistani products will be completely out of competition in the international market,” they apprehended and said the country had already lost much of the global market to China, Bangladesh and India due to high production costs.

PCBDDA: The Punjab Central Business District Development Authority (PCBDDA), known as the Central Business District Punjab (CBD Punjab), completed 100 of the total 148 retaining piles for the CBD Punjab Boulevard’s Railway Crossing Flyover.

According to a spokesman, with an allocated budget of approximately Rs9.1bn, the CBD reiterated its commitment to building a modern, interconnected business district. Spanning over 4.2km, the CBD Boulevard, along with a three-lane two-way flyover, will connect Kalma Chowk to the Walton Road, linking the CBD Punjab Quaid District to the CBD Punjab Bab District.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2024