Prime Minister announces energy relief package for industrial sector

Pakistani Premier Imran Khan announced a reduction in electricity rates for Pakistani industries as part of an economy-boosting package earlier this week. He said that all SME’s will incur half the cost of all additional units consumed. This will be effective from now till the 30^th of June 2021. He further went on saying that additional electricity will be provided at 25pc discount to the whole industry for the next 3 years.

Imran Khan expressed his disappointment with how the industries couldn’t reach full potential due to unfriendly electricity price structure agreements signed by previous governments. He was of the opinion that this will increase domestic production which will subsequently improve exports. He said that the sale of construction material like cement is at a record high (this is also owing to Imran Khan’s Naya Pakistan Housing Program). Apart from the construction sector, there was positive movement in the automobile sector as well.

He commented that in the previous government’s tenure, exports fell instead of going up. This is why all efforts now have been focused on pushing exports up again. The service industry took the biggest hit due to COVID-19. By subsidizing the industrial sector, the economic and financial shortfall caused by reduced service sector activity is successfully covered. Towards the end, Hammad Azhar, Minister for Industries and Production touched on the relationship between increasing employment rates with booming industries and stated how this can help Pakistan fight unemployment.