PESHAWAR: The Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) on Wednesday urged the government to impose “energy emergency” amid escalating Middle East crisis
The SCCI said the conflict posed a threat to Pakistan’s fragile economy and the export-oriented industrial base of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In a joint statement, SCCI President Junaid Altaf, Senior Vice President Muhammad Nadeem and Vice President Sabir Ahmad Bangash said that the compounding burden of regionally uncompetitive petroleum prices and a restrictive monetary regime was pushing the domestic cost of doing business toward a breaking point.
The SCCI office-bearers highlighted a widening disparity between Pakistan and its regional trade competitors, noting that while neighbouring economies maintained accommodative, single-digit interest rates, Pakistani industries were being stifled by a 10.5 per cent policy rate.
The SCCI president said that the high cost of borrowing coupled with the recent exorbitant Rs55 per litre hike in petroleum prices had crippled the capital investment and stalled industrial modernization across the province.
He said the repeated increases in petroleum levies were inflating the cost of captive power generation, leaving exporters with severely eroded margins in an increasingly unforgiving global market.
The SCCI chief while talking about the vulnerabilities in the national energy supply chain expressed serious concerns over Pakistan’s heavy reliance on Gulf energy imports, specifically crude oil and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar.
Junaid Altaf warned that any further maritime disruption would trigger a catastrophic cost-of-living crisis and jeopardize the manufacturing sector’s energy security.
the SCCI chief pointed out to the skyrocketing freight costs, which, according to him, have spiked by 300 per cent due to “war-risk” insurance classifications, and noted that the rerouting of shipments is adding up to 20 days to transit times for exports destined for the EU, UK, and US markets. Junaid Altaf stressed that the direct linkage of Port Qasim and Karachi Port to Gulf shipping lanes leaves domestic supply chains highly exposed to regional volatility.
