PESHAWAR: The Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) has demanded the government to address the reservations of industries, particularly the CNG sector, regarding the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) payments, saying that the government must immediately make a final decision in this regard.
“Businessmen of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa operating in the CNG sector had earlier filed a petition in Peshawar High Court, wherein they had informed the superior judiciary that they didn’t avail the GIDC,” SCCI President Engineer Maqsood Anwar Pervaiz said in a statement on Friday. “So the government’s decision to recover the sum from industries, particularly the CNG sector, is unjustified.”
He made it clear that industrialists/CNG owners would not accept the government’s decision of recovering the GIDC sum via instalments.
“Instead, a high-powered committee, involving all stakeholders, should be constituted by the government so that a way forward could be chalked out in light of the recent decision of the Peshawar High Court.”
He informed that the Peshawar High Court, while hearing the GIDC case, had directed the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) to submit an audit report regarding GIDC within a month. The superior judiciary also issued directions to OGRA to constitute a high-powered committee to address the GIDC amicably.
For the committee, he said, SCCI has proposed three experts and has asked the OGRA to give them due representation.
Meanwhile, the chamber president requested the federal government that the industries, including the CNG sector, which had been adversely affected by Covid-19 pandemic situation, should be given relief at all levels.
“Industries have always played a vital role in economic development and employment generation in the country,” he noted, adding that the industries are confronted with severe economic challenges in the post Covid-19 scenario.
