Increase in power tariff vexes industry.

KARACHI -- Expressing concern over the Rs1.95 per unit electricity tariff hike and gas disconnection to the industry, the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) and Employers' Federation of Pakistan (EFP) on Friday decried the decisions.

FPCCI President Mian Nasser Hyatt Magoo said that instead of reforming the energy sector, ad hoc and painful decisions were being made which are detrimental to domestic industry.

The much awaited outcome of negotiations between the government and independent power producers (IPPs) - which were aimed at reduction in base tariff - did not produce desired results which again is a shocking outcome and questionable, Magoo said.

The spokesman of the energy ministry had attributed the need for tariff hike to bad and corrupt agreements made with IPPs in the past.

'If this was an issue, such a situation needs to be corrected through invoking all the civil and criminal remedies to correct the agreements by excluding 'pay or take', reducing O and M cost, converting the repatriation cost from dollar indexation to rupee and relevant recommended...