The business community in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has strongly rejected the recent increase in petroleum prices, warning that the move will trigger widespread economic disruption, industrial slowdown and rising inflation across the province and the country.
\nIn a joint statement issued here on Friday, leaders of the KP Traders Association and the Peshawar Chamber of Small Traders and Small Industries termed the increase in petrol price to Rs137.23 per litre and diesel to Rs184.49 per litre as \u201cunacceptable\u201d and damaging to the fragile economy.
\nThe statement, signed by association president Malik Mehralahi, chamber president Shakeel Ahmed Khan Saraf, spokesperson Shahzad Ahmed Siddiqui, and several representatives of trader bodies from across the province, expressed deep concern over the impact of the hike on businesses and the public.
\nThey warned that the sharp increase in diesel prices, in particular, would severely affect the industrial sector, which was already struggling with high electricity costs and law and order challenges.
\n\u201cThis will prove to be the last nail in the coffin for many industries,\u201d the statement said, adding that manufacturers may be forced to scale down or halt production due to soaring operational costs.
\nThe traders noted that the rise in fuel prices would significantly increase transportation and freight charges, disrupting supply chains.
\nThe higher cost of moving raw materials to factories and delivering finished goods to markets, they said, could render local products uncompetitive.
\nThey also cautioned that the surge in transport costs would directly impact prices of essential commodities, including flour, pulses, rice, sugar, ghee and vegetables. \u201cWhen transportation costs rise, the burden ultimately falls on the common consumer,\u201d the statement added.
\nThe business leaders warned of potential large-scale industrial closures and job losses if the government failed to review its decision, urging authorities to take immediate steps to provide relief to both businesses and the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The business community in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has strongly rejected the recent increase in petroleum prices, warning that the move will trigger widespread economic disruption, industrial slowdown and rising inflation across the province and the country. In a joint statement issued here on Friday, leaders of the KP Traders Association and the Peshawar Chamber of Small …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":65497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95870,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95850\/revisions\/95870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}