LAHORE: Federal Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar has criticised the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) for distorting facts on the gas curtailments to Captive Power Plants (CPPs) and said the government cannot bow to the wish or ego of anyone.

“A majority of industry (94 per cent), including cement factories, glass factories, etc., are being operated on electricity (power connections). But why not the textile exports industry that claims to produce efficiently on captive power. They (the textile industry) are the only sector being given subsidised gas and power tariff. But despite all this, they are complaining,” the minister said in a TV talk show on Friday.

“The industry (through Aptma) had in February, this year, pledged to not receive subsidy after June 30, this year and switch on operation of mills through electricity. But they didn’t fulfill their promise and took the matter to court,” he explained while responding to queries related to gas cut to the CPP-run industry.

The minister said the government couldn’t provide Re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas to the textile export industry on cheaper rates after purchasing it on higher rates.

Aptma, besides raising the issue in media, also wrote a letter recently to Prime Minister Imran Khan and stated that most of its member mills are co-generation and use gas to produce electricity as well as steam and hot water used in the process.

Even if the additional electricity load could be accommodated, the mills cannot generate steam and hot water from electricity. “As most of the mills (80pc) will not be in a position to operate, the impact on employment would be extremely detrimental. As a consequence, a large number of workers would be laid off in Punjab leading to many social and political consequences,” Aptma warns.

The minister said all mills have electricity connections and if some of them are yet to be provided electricity on increased load through applications they submitted already, it doesn’t mean that they are unable to run their mills on the existing electricity connections.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2021