Shehbaz exempts over 17.1m power consumers from FAC

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif Tuesday announced complete exemption to around 17.1 million electricity consumers out of 30 million from paying their fuel adjustment charges. As immediate relief to the masses, Shehbaz said the government had also notified rescinding of levy of fixed taxes on retailers and shopkeepers. He announced that out of 3 crore consumers, a total of 17,100,000 consumers would not pay the fuel adjustment charges, as it was now removed. After this relief, they will not pay a single rupee under the FAC,” he added. He said about 300,000 users of agriculture tube wells in the country would also enjoy complete exemption from the fuel adjustment charges. The prime minister further explained that a mechanism in this regard would be announced soon, adding that they were also reviewing other power users’ costs. Accompanied by the members of his delegation in Qatar where he arrived on his two-day official visit, the prime minister said that when they came into power, they had two targets to achieve. The coalition government carried the backlog of previous government which had left behind a trail of worst performance and economic decay and due to their pathetic policies, the country was on the verge of default, he said, adding, but due to the untiring efforts of the coalition government, that danger was over. The prime minister said the previous government’s poor performance had resulted in the price hike of commodities, but his government continued its efforts day and night to control it. He said though they had not achieved much, efforts were being made through collective efforts ‘to send back the jinni of price hike back into the bottle’. The prime minister regretted that during the discussion on the passage of first fiscal budget, they had discussed the issue of fixed tax on retailers and shopkeepers but practically, the things went wrong which did not reflect reality. Imposition of such taxes was against the spirit of what they had discussed, he said, adding due to such measures, the small shopkeepers had to face an extra burden of paying taxes. The prime minister clarified that it was neither the purpose of the government nor they had discussed such mechanism. A committee has been set up to fix the responsibility in this issue which would submit its report, he said, adding that the process would take some time. The prime minister said a notification was also issued regarding removal of fixed taxes of Rs3000, 6000 and 10,000 on shopkeepers. He said such a waiver would result in Rs42 billion revenue collection gap, but the government would meet it from other resources, as it could not want to create problems to the small shopkeepers. The prime minister assured the retailers and shopkeepers that they did not need to worry about and would not face problems, as the government had controlled the things. About the second issue the coalition government faced, he said the fuel adjustment charge was interlinked with the fluctuation of prices of oil in the international markets which were being adjusted in the electricity bills. The prime minster said in the months of July and August, the consumers had to face high fuel adjustment charge. He said that he also took immediate notice of this issue and upon the direction of Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and in consultation with the leaders of the coalition partners; they continued reviewing the issue during the last few days. The prime minister said Muhammad Nawaz Sharif had issued clear direction that such high costs were not acceptable. He said that it was the irony of fate that they had to consult with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for everything due to an agreement of the previous regime and but now they had negotiated the relief successfully. About his visit to Qatar, the prime minister said it was their second home and he had arrived there to discuss the different aspects of bilateral investment, trade and development projects for the progress and prosperity of the people of Pakistan. He said that it pained him too much when asked questions about the stalemate projects during the last four years of the previous government. Still, the prime minister said that they had to strive and shed their sweat for the progress and prosperity of the country. “Good times will arrive, though it may be late but not impossible,” he declared and assured the nation that they should keep satisfaction as all the leaders of coalition government had been working day and night to put the country back on the track of progress and development. He said the coalition government was working for the well-being of the entire nation and expressed the optimism that they would get success in the days ahead. Shehbaz appealed to the nation to donate for supporting the relief and rehabilitation of the people and infrastructure in flood-hit areas where hundreds have been killed and thousands rendered homeless. He said the government was distributing Rs37.2 billion as cash relief among the flood-stricken people. Rs5 billion has immediately been released to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to accelerate the rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts. He said Rs25,000 cash assistance was being paid to the flood victims in addition to the compensation of Rs1 million for the family of the deceased, and additional support for the injured people and damages to the houses. “All this requires Rs80 billion. It also requires hundreds of billions of rupees to overcome the losses as well as for rehabilitation of the victims,” he added.