February 07, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 28, 1429

LAHORE, Feb 6: The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) members in the upcountry are losing Rs5 billion per month due to the energy shortages, alleges its Punjab chairman Akber Sheikh.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday he said that the textile industry in Punjab had suffered severely because of the energy shortage in the last one and a half months. He said 70 per cent of industries, which depend on gas, had suffered losses equal to 25 days of production.

“Most gas-dependent units, which do not have alternative arrangements or a backup system, are not functioning due to unavailability of diesel and power breakdowns,” he said.

He said a delegation of spinners had called on the caretaker prime minister on Jan 23 and expressed its concern over power and gas cuts to the industry. “Despite his assurance for an uninterrupted supply, the gas supply to the textile industry has been completely disconnected,” he said.

The Aptma provincial chief further said that before the meeting 60mmcfd of gas was being made available to the Aptma members. But after the prime minister’s assurance even the existing supply was disconnected.

He said 30 per cent of the industry dependent on electricity had also been affected because of a five-hour mandatory cut and 3-4 hours of unannounced load-shedding.

“Around 33pc of the production has been affected. In addition, sophisticated textile machinery has been badly damaged because of fluctuations in voltage.

He said that spinning and weaving operations of the mills also faced a serious energy crisis. “It is feared that the exporters of value-added textile products will not be able to meet export orders due to closure of the weaving facility. The Aptma leader pointed out that the textile exports in December had already declined by 25 per cent. It is feared that exports for January would further decline. Closures and bank defaults are imminent in addition to sizeable workers’ lay offs and unemployment,” he said.

He demanded that the gas supply to the textile mills should immediately be restored and all units with dual fired generation capacity should be asked to use furnace oil instead of gas.

He said that the smooth supply of electricity should be ensured to all independent feeders of B-3 connections and the mandatory three-hour shutdown during peak period be immediately stopped.

Mr. Akber further demanded that the priority of gas supply to the textile being export-oriented industry be ensured and the MDI charges for the period of load-shedding be withdrawn.

He suggested the transfer of gas from SSGC system to SNGPL system during the period of crisis in winters in north as electricity supply was being made available to the KESC network by Wapda in summer.

He further said that the fertiliser industry should be closed during winters for two months and gas so spared be made available to the export-oriented textile industry. He thought that 70 per cent of the textile industry could be operated if gas was stopped to the fertiliser units.

He proposed that the government should consider import of fertiliser during this period and should compensate the fertiliser industry accordingly.

He said that the gas supply to the CNG stations during winter should be disconnected.