LAHORE: Lahore and Faisalabad chambers of commerce and industry on Tuesday strongly criticised the SNGPL’s new gas load management plan.

In a joint meeting of the LCCI and FCCI delegations here on Tuesday, both the sides agreed that plan to cut gas supplies to industrial consumers for three months, between December and February, would prove a death knell for export-based industry and productivity.

They LCCI and FCCI office-bearers urged the government to immediately shelve the proposed load management plan to avert industrial closures and resultant layoffs.

They sought the Premier’s intervention for regular supply of gas to the industry in Punjab.

LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh, Senior Vice President Kashif, Younas Mehar and Vice President Saeeda Nazar and the FCCI President Muzammil Sultan, Vice President Rehan Naseem Bharara and others in a joint statement said that this single step would throw millions of industrial workers out of jobs, and it would definitely give air to anti-government sentiments.

How can the industry afford to pay an all-time high mark-up of 16 per cent when there in no gas for the industry for 90 days at a stretch, they added.

They said that there was a global phenomenon that industry was always given priority, but situation in Pakistan was absolutely opposite.

They said around 40 per cent of industrial units in Punjab run on gas and gas suspension means no production by almost half of the industry and a loss of millions of rupees to the exchequer.

The ‘discriminatory attitude’ of the government was not only denting its goodwill and reputation, but had also put a question mark on its ability to manage and govern things.