KARACHI, Oct 23: A meeting of the businessmen on Thursday resolved that the strike called by the zonal FPCCI chairman for Oct 25 will be deferred till the finalisation of a decision in this regard, as negotiations on power tariff issue with the government are in progress.

The meeting held at the Federation House also resolved that no increase in electricity rates would be acceptable for domestic, commercial and industrial consumers of 40 KW units, while for other industrial units, a decision would be made after negotiations with the government in the light of cost analysis of energy production.

It was also resolved that the electricity bills would not be paid as the government had announced that consumers would not be penalised with additional surcharge and disconnection on account of non-payment for the next 10 days.

The meeting further resolved that 31 per cent increase in gas tariff is not acceptable. The businessmen also demanded four per cent drop in lending rates.

In his opening remarks, FPCCI president Tanvir Ahmed Sheikh stated that rationalisation of electricity tariff should be decided in consultation with the stake-holders and subsidies should not be withdrawn immediately. He indicated that overnight changes in the international market are not possible, so tariff should be changed gradually, if required.

According to FPCCI’s press release, he suggested that the industry should be exempted from line-wise adjustment. He added that one-third production has been dropped in the industry because of present electricity crises. It was decided that in case of failure of the negotiations, another meeting would be held to take necessary action and adopt the future strategy.

The participants were of the meeting were of the view that the agreement with Abraj Capital should be shown to industrialists and businessmen to strengthen the confidence.

The meeting was well attended and all major industrial groups represented including KCCI, Anjuman Tajran, Pakistan Tannery Association, KATI, SITE, Tariq Sayeed, Farooq Dadabhoy, Azhar Saeed Butt, Zubair Tufail, Siraj Kasim Teli, Zubair Motiwala, Anjum Nisar, Nisar Sheikhani, G R Arshad, Atiq Meer, Dr Mushtaq Noorwala, M AJabbar and Asghar A Morawala.