LAHORE: The exemption from loadshedding to industrial sector, granted by the prime minister, has been `withdrawn’ by the electricity distribution companies.

The export-oriented industrial units in Punjab had heaved a sigh of relief when the prime minister on Nov 14 announced the sector would not face crippling electricity and gas disruptions. The decision was implemented on the following day.

However, to the shock of industrial units in general and textile sector in particular, the outages have resumed.

“All the distribution companies again unleashed 10-hour a day electricity loadshedding on Dec 16, without any intimation and justification and in spite of clear-cut directions by the prime minister,” said a leading exporter.

He said the textile industry had again been limited to operating on one-and-a-half shift out of three shifts per day, rendering thousands of workers jobless and fast eroding viability of the industry, crippling its capacity to produce exportable surplus for earning foreign exchange.

Owing to the energy outages, exports of the textile sector dropped to $3.4 billion from July-September this year, with a maximum decrease of 63 percent in sales of cotton.

The government sprang into action after the textile industry started complaining about the loss of $1 billion in the past six months and the threat of losing another $2 billion in coming months, if the industry was not completely shut down due to energy shortages.

“With the drop in mercury, the demand for electricity has decreased. We still have enough hydel power as the canals have not been closed for annual de-siltation yet,” said the exporter.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2014