KARACHI, July 3: The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) members from Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar have unanimously rejected the decision taken by Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to increase tariff on gas for captive power by 68 per cent and on industrial consumption by 31 per cent.

The decision was contained in a resolution, released here on Thursday, adopted at an Aptma meeting held on Wednesday.

In a press release, Aptma declared the hike in gas tariff as unsustainable for the industry and warned that it might eventually lead to closure of textile industry causing large scale unemployment, a significant drop in export earnings, increase in import of finished textile goods, and bank loan defaults.

The house was fully charged and according to the press release some of its members asked the Aptma leadership to give a call for total closure of the industry. The meeting observed that the Ogra decision “discriminates industry as it spares independent power producers from the impact of hike in tariff on gas”. The meeting authorised the Pakistan Textile Forum to take up a legal course.