LAHORE, May 12: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the government to bring down the prices of petroleum products as their prices in the international market have registered a visible decline.

In a statement issued here on Saturday, chamber president Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said if the Indian government could reduce oil prices by Rs11 per litre (about 19 Pakistani rupees) in one go, the Pakistan authorities should also make an equal cut in prices.

He said the cut in oil prices would make no dent in government revenues as it would just be passing on what it was getting from the international market. By bringing down the prices, the government would be arresting fast escalating inflation graph while cut in cost of doing business would help expedite production that had nose-dived due to an acute electricity shortage and high cost of doing business.

The chamber president also urged the government to cut the number of taxes on petroleum products as the fuel was the engine of growth. “If the fuel is heavily taxed, the entire economy will suffer. The same happened in Pakistan as the continuous increase in POL prices has ruined the industrial and economic activities, he said.

He said a number of industrial units had already shifted their operations to other countries due to high cost of doing business in Pakistan.

The LCCI chief said the entire industrial sector was facing multiple internal and external challenges, and a cut in oil prices would help provide them some relief. He said the ongoing high prices of petroleum products had also hit the agriculture sector.

He said the government was producing huge amount of electricity through thermal means and after a cut in petroleum prices, the electricity prices would also come down.