MQM rejects plan to increase electricity tariff

MQM member Raza Haroon says increase will overburden the inflation-hit people.

KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement rejected  the government's plan to increase electricity tarriff by two per cent on Saturday.

Speaking to the media at the Hamara Karachi festival, MQM Co-ordination Committee member Raza Haroon said the increase will overburden the inflation-hit people.

He demanded the government withdraw its decision immediately.
The Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is said to have approved a two per cent increase in power tariff and the Finance Ministry is likely to issue a notification in this regard soon.

The hike is part of a scheduled increase in conformance with the IMF guildelines.

Earlier this week, Finance ministry sources told The Express Tribune that the government has assured the IMF that it will increase the power tariff by at least two to six per cent within a couple of days and withdraw sales tax exemptions on certain items –  the pledges again dependent on the political leadership’s willingness to deliver.

The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) also announced that residential, commercial and industrial areas will now undergo 11 hours of load-shedding in total every day from Friday.

Spokesman Amir Abbasi told The Express Tribune that after the prices of petroleum products went up, the government subsidised diesel and petrol but not furnace oil — the main source of the utility’s power generation.