LARKANA: The government contractors have quit the tendering process for public sector schemes in the Larkana district. They complained that the rates of construction-related items had gone sky-rocketing which had made projects infeasible.

“Our profit margin is already low and higher rates do not suit us to bid for the projects,” said Saeed Jatoi, leader of Mehran Contractors Association, while talking to media here on Monday after their protest demonstration was held within the boundary of Irrigation Department. The protest was also joined by Riaz Langah, Hafeez Abro, Janib Lashari, Ihsan Shah and others.

Jatoi said they had repeatedly demanded of the government to revise the rates which he claimed had not been reworked since 2012 when the prices of essential construction materials like cement, iron rods, etc. were around 100 percent lower than today.

Jatoi and his associates stayed away from the tendering process initiated by Sindh’s Irrigation and Buildings Departments and claimed the contractors had responded to their call-in other districts of the province too. He said that a tough challenge to the ruling party was that all development schemes would come to a standstill in the district as they had not participated in the tendering business.

Another aspect of this issue was that the government rules related to the projects were that the executing engineers had the discretion to allow relief in rates up to a mark of 20 percent. But the contractors complain they never get full relief in case of the increase of rates in the market, he added.

Jatoi further alleged that after the lapse of nine years, the last three years have been tumultuous in terms of inflation which has skyrocketed the rates of items like cement, iron, bricks, etc. A communication from Secretary, Standing Rates Committee, Sindh, shows that there is a movement for revision of rates and quite a few meetings have also taken place but the pace of the work is so slow that the patience of the contractors has practically run out. ‘What we know is that there is no outcome as yet, said Saeed Jatoi.