Daily Times

KCCI-karachi-chamber-of-commerce-IndustryTrade bodies including the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) have rejected the Sindh government’s move to increase minimum wages by 43 percent and called it an unconstitutional step with negative consequences.

The KCCI issued a statement here and said industries of Sindh particularly of Karachi were highly aggrieved and perturbed by the Sindh government’s move to increase the minimum wage from Rs17,500 to Rs25,000 without following due process of law and contrary to the provisions of Sindh Minimum Wage Act 2015 and ILO’s minimum wages fixation convention 1970.

The increase in the minimum wage would make industries of Sindh uncompetitive and unviable to operate, not locally but also globally, it stated, adding that minimum wage in the centre and Punjab was Rs20,000 while in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan it was Rs21,000 and the minimum wages fixed by Sindh were not equitable to the employers.

The enhanced minimum wage would affect the cost of manufacturing of export industries, making them uncompetitive in the international market, and it will also defeat the purpose of creating import substitute industry in Pakistan, it further explained.

Industries of Karachi have a share of 54 percent in national exports, 67 percent revenue is generated mainly from Karachi for the national exchequer and 95 percent revenue for the Sindh Revenue Board, it said, adding that the gravity of the situation would lead to massive layoffs, unemployment and law and order situation.

KCCI claimed that Federation Of Pakistan Chambers Of Commerce and Industry, Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporters Association, SITE Association Of Trade and Industry, Landhi Association Of Trade and Industry, North Karachi Association of Trade and Industry, Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association, All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association, Pakistan Cloth Merchants Association, Pakistan Knitwear and Sweaters Exporters Association, Pakistan Cotton Fashion Apparel Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Pakistan Bedwear Exporters Association and other FPCCI affiliated Chambers and Associations of Sindh Province shared the same concerns over the issue.

The trade bodies termed the Sindh Government’s Notification No.L-II-13-3/2016 dated 9th July, 2021 as unjustified, unreasonable, and executed in non-compliance of the due process of law while sidelining the jurisdiction of minimum wage board and without consulting stakeholders — the employers’ representatives.