How severely the power crisis has crippled the country’s commercial life can be gauged from World Bank’s findings that the scourge has left 400,000 people jobless. The flaws in the government’s strategy of dealing with the shortfall are hence quite obvious. The report also says that the plan of procuring 500MW of electricity from India would take 36 months. In fact, three years are a long period of time that can instead be used to launch other indigenous hydel projects, all the more so when the electricity India will be selling will be generated from the stolen water that belongs to us, in accordance with the Indus Water Basin Treaty.
The World Bank’s report, meanwhile, is a serious indictment of all that the federal setup has done so far, including the fifth budget that appears to be pro-poor but only on paper. The recent report is that petrol charges would be cut down by Rs 10, while the CNG price by Rs 6, as announced by Federal Minister for Petroleum. A drop in the ocean, this is too late since in the international market the prices have been going down for the past many months. The rulers might congratulate themselves on the move and no doubt they should but at the end of the day, there is not likely to be much impact of the move on the economy. This is manifest from the state of affairs in the market, especially the transporters who have not reduced the fares raised 15 days back, despite the announcement of the decrease. Also, the vicious circle of inflationary spiral that has engulfed the common man’s life with ominous shadows of hunger and suicide shows no sign of abating at least in the foreseeable future. Granted, the market forces especially in an atmosphere of free market economy normally determine their own trajectory yet they have now deteriorated to a horrific extent. What is worrying is that a new tax in the form of advance tax on transfer and sale of property has been enforced which makes the claim of relief to the masses a standing joke.
Peoples’ standard of living has worsened greatly over the years. And a few cosmetic changes are not going to reverse their fortunes. As the World Bank has warned, the main cause of economy’s decline is the energy crisis. As it generates jobs and spurs growth of trade and commerce in many different ways, it must be first grappled. Otherwise, disaffection towards the rulers witnessed through energy riots countrywide will shoot up in days and weeks ahead.