Business, industry suffer huge losses: Extended Eid holidays
By Parvaiz Ishfaq Rana
KARACHI, Oct 27: The nation has to suffer billions of rupees loss in industrial production owing to extended Eidul Fitr holidays which resulted in long closure of production facilities throughout the country. Even export trade has to suffer millions of dollars on missing weekly shipping schedule.
Business leaders and industrialists have expressed their utter dismay over long closure of business and industrial establishments and demanded of the government to adopt some proper and fool-proof method in this modern and scientific era for sighting of moon in order to avoid recurrence of such incidents.
The business and industrial activity will remain at standstill until coming Monday because there is no possibility that those who left for their ancestral places on Jumatul Widah would return before early next week.
“Had the government handled the eid holidays issue wisely, there would have been only three close holidays starting from Oct 24 to October 26,” said a leading exporter, adding that this would have also discouraged people from clubbing their holidays with other close days such as Jumatul Widah and week-end.
The long closures have also made exporters to suffer as they missed their two weekly shipment schedules i.e. Monday and Thursday. This may force some exporters to air-lift their cargo in order to save their LCs from expiring or losing their export contracts.
SITE Association of Industry Chairman Amin Bandukda told Dawn that the industrial production in SITE area suffered on an average a loss of Rs2 billion per day.
He said that on Friday, there was very thin attendance of work-force in the industry and there was no possibility that workers who left to interior of Sindh or the upcountry would come back before Monday.
Mr Bandukda said that around 3,000 units in SITE area were involved in production of large variety of goods including textiles, engineering, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, beverages, steel re-rolling etc.
He urged the government to adopt some proper calculation or method for sighting of moon as it had economic implications as for any nation in this era quality, timely delivery and competitive price were the major weapons of success on the world market.
Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) Chairman Masood Naqvi said that there was rare possibility of witnessing full-scale production activity before coming Monday, because many industrial workers who left for their ancestral places would not be able to come back in time due to face transportation problems.
Responding to a question, he said that around 4,000 industrial units set up in KATI contribute around Rs250 million per day towards national exchequer in shape of duties and taxes. “This will give clear picture as to how much industrial production is lost per day,” he added.
“Sighting of moon is a serious issue and it should not be left to Moulvis and scientific methods should be adopted to avoid controversy resulting in economic losses for the country,” Mr Naqvi asserted.
In an era where up to a split of second could be calculated there was no reason that lunar movement could not be calculated well in advance, he maintained.
North Karachi Industrial Area (NKIA) Patron-in-Chief Capt Moiz Khan said that he had to close his unit at Juma prayers as no workforce returned. “I kept my office open till midday on Friday in the hope that labour would report back after Eid holidays but nobody returned back,” he complained.
He further said that all the markets and commercial areas of the city also remained closed and there was no hope that industrial and business activity would come to normal before Monday.
However, he said that the messing up of Eid holidays by the government was the main reason that most of the workforce would not come back to their work places before early next week. “This would mean that the industrial production will remain at standstill for around 10 to 11 days incurring huge economic loss.
He said that the North Karachi industrial area contributed on an average around Rs200 million per day towards the national kitty.
