PESHAWAR: The Awami National Party (ANP) has submitted an adjournment motion in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly against the ‘drastic’ increase in electricity bills due to Fuel Price Adjustment (FPA).
The motion also flayed the KP government our closure of factories in the province due to high taxes. The adjournment motion, submitted by Sardar Hussain Babak, the provincial general secretary and parliamentary leader of the Awami National Party, said that marble and other factories in Buner, Swat and other areas have been closed due to the “exorbitant” increase in taxes. “Factory owners and thousands of workers have been forced to protest and thousand of families of factory workers are now jobless,” the adjournment motion said.
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The notice said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa generates 6500 Megawatt of electricity at a cost of Rs15 paise per unit however; the province has to purchase it from the federal government at much high price. The adjournment motion said that the central government should abide by the constitution and allow provinces to benefit from their natural resources.
The motion furthered that the increase in electricity prices was “tantamount to robbing” the people of the province of their constitutional rights. The motion also demanded that the KP government to stand firm and retrieve the province’s legal and constitutional rights from the federal government.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly unanimously passed as resolutions against the Fuel Price Adjustment (FPA) surcharge in bills in the province despite producing surplus electricity through hydraulic power plants. Introduced by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Ikhtiar Wali said the KP is generating electricity hydraulic power plants but the poor people of the province has been subjected to “unjust” FPA surcharge for a long time. However, the NEPRA has once against approved FPA surcharge in January electricity bills.