GIDC hike: CM says matter will be taken up at CCI

Khattak said K-P is a net producer of gas yet the province remains one of the most under-developed.

Chief Minister (CM) Pervez Khattak has reiterated his demand to bring the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) imposed in the federal budget 2014-15 to the same level as the last fiscal year. He said the provincial government will take up all such issues at the Council of Common Interests (CCI) if they are not amicably resolved.

The CM was talking to a group of industrialists led by Board of Investment and Trade Vice Chairman Mohsin Aziz at the CM Secretariat on Friday.

Expressing grave concern over the hike, industrialists requested the CM to save local businesses and lamented that the increase, besides harming interests of the business community, will sabotage the provincial government’s policy to provide cheap gas-produced electricity to local factories.

Khattak said the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government has already rejected the increase and he was of the view that such matters should be brought before CCI before being formalised.

He assured the business community that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led coalition government will honour its promise of providing cheap electricity from gas to industrial units and will also establish new industrial estates across the province.

Regarding the rich gas resources in the province, Khattak said K-P is a net producer of gas yet due to various reasons, the province remains one of the most under-developed part of the country. He reiterated that any increase in GIDC will be tantamount to crippling the province’s economic development.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2014.