LAHORE, Sept 17: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Monday urged the government to withdraw hike in oil prices as it would increase cost of doing business in Pakistan.

In a statement, LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh, Senior Vice-President Kashif Younis Meher and Vice-President Saeeda Nazar said there was no denying the fact that oil prices were on the rise in the international market but instead of passing on this surge to masses, the government should cut the number of taxes on petroleum products as fuel is the engine of growth.

If fuel would be heavily taxed, entire economy would suffer and the same happened in Pakistan as repeated increases in the POL prices had ruined industrial and economic activities, the LCCI office-bearers said.

They said that only because of high cost of doing business in Pakistan, a large number of industrial units had already shifted their operations to other countries and the recent decision would force more industrialists to shift their industrial units.They said that it is not the industrial sector alone but the agriculture sector would also badly suffer.

“Pakistan’s agriculture sector is engine of growth. The increase in petroleum prices would increase the input cost of agriculture production. They said that cost of thermal generation by the private sector would also go up.

They said that the government is producing huge amount of electricity through thermal means and after increase in petroleum prices, would lead to increase in power tariff.

They said that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry had for the last many years been calling on the concerned government circles to take measures for promotion of alternate fuels as trade deficit was fast widening due to heavy imports under the head of petroleum products.