KARACHI: Units in Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (Site) have been experiencing extremely low gas pressure during the last three months thereby crippling production activity and export orders which have to meet shipping schedule for timely delivery to foreign buyers.

Site Chairman Saleem Parekh in a statement on Thursday said that up to 52 per cent of the country’s exports are generated from this industrial area contributing up to 64pc in tax revenue.

He explained that the industrial units have been experiencing extremely low pressure for the last 45 days while on Sundays there is zero gas supply.

Parekh claimed that on an average the industry suffered a loss of Rs2.5 billion a day and this was having direct implication on production, exports and tax revenue collection.

The exporters are losing orders and are unable to fulfil their year-end export commitments which is likely to decrease exports as they continue to record poor growth during first five months of current fiscal year, he lamented.

He complained that due to low gas pressure power gas generators frequently shut-down causing faults in the plant and machinery and corrupting sophisticate software bringing production activity to a total halt for days.

He was critical about the performance of Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and stated that the utility has failed in ensuring uninterrupted gas supply to priority sectors.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2018