Peshawar: The Sarhad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI) on Thursday requested a three-month waiver on commercial utility bills, a news source reported. To this effect, SCCI President Maqsood Anwar Pervaiz has requested the government to waive off the electricity and gas bills for commercial and industrial consumers for the stated period in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The SCCI president made these requests during a video
meeting with industrialists, traders, and shopkeepers. He appreciated the fact that
the government had already deferred the utility bills of domestic consumers for
the same three-month period.
Further, Pervaiz highlighted that due to the ongoing, countrywide COVID-19 lockdown, the business community was facing significant financial challenges. In the interest of providing relief, he appealed to Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, Federal Minister for Water & Power Omar Ayub Khan, and senior officials of the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) to offer them a commercial utility bills waiver sought for the coming period.
Additionally, the SCCI president also requested the
government to exempt small traders from federal and provincial taxes; stating
that the government should bolster them with interest-free loans amid the
continuing pandemic situation.
