KARACHI: Dr. Mirza Ikhtiar Baig Senior Vice President FPCCI said that imposition of Gas infrastructure development Cess (GIDC) unjustified.

He clarified that GIDC was imposed to develop gas infrastructure for Pak Iran gas pipeline, Turkmenistan Pakistan gas pipeline (TAPI), LNG terminals etc. Dr. Baig said that Pak Iran gas pipeline and TAPI are not practically existing whereas LNG terminals are constructed by the investment of private sector without any financial burden to the government.

In a recent meeting on GIDC at Federation House Karachi, Lahore & Islamabad, it is unanimously decided to request government to withdraw GIDC from the gas bills as it will make our industry and exporting sectors uncompetitive.

He further said that Pakistan is already most expensive in energy tariff as compared to our regional competitors. Dr. Baig requested Prime Minister & Finance Minister to reduce our cost of production enabling to compete with our regional competitors.

The meeting was attended by Vice Presidents Ismail Suttar, Noor Ahmed Khan, Muslim Mohammedi, Abdul Waheed, Abdul Rauf Mukhtar, Maqsood Ismail, Waqar Manoo, Ghias Paracha & other leading industrialists and exporters. [the_ad id=”31605″]