LAHORE, Aug 25: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the government to reject the proposal for further increase in power tariff because it is anti-industry and anti-people.

Chamber president Mohammad Ali Mian said, in a statement, there was no justification for further increase because the rates were already very high and the oil prices were registering a downward trend in the international market. He said the economy would suffer as the manufacturing sector was already finding it difficult to compete due to high cost of doing business.

Meanwhile, the LCCI president, senior vice-president Mian Muzaffar and vice-president Shafqat Saeed have appealed to the government to resolve issues of transporters on a priority basis. They said their strike was causing multiple problems to the business community, especially to exporters and importers besides inflicting a huge loss on the national exchequer.

Chamber office-bearers said stocks of raw materials with the industries were fast exhausting while the finished goods were piling up at various industrial units due to their non-transportation. They said business activities had already been affected and the country was facing worst economic crisis which would create more difficulties for the government.

They said the shortage of necessary items besides heavy demurrage charges to be borne by the business community would further worsen the situation.