LAHORE, July 9: The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) delegation will attend a series of dialogues with government high-ups in Islamabad to resolve the issues faced by the industry, the association’s spokesman said on Monday.

The delegation, led by Aptma Chairman Mohsin Aziz, will meet with the president, prime minister and relevant ministers.

The spokesman said as many as 57 textile mills, who are prime users of electricity on independent feeders having hardly 135MW load, have been subjected to six to eight hours industry wide load shedding.

The severe shortage of electricity has forced us to cut down on shift, and as a result 150,000 workers have been laid off, he said.

The Aptma delegation would also meet with the Minister for Textile Industry to discuss the Technology Up-gradation Funds Scheme (TUFS) to mitigate the impact of high interest rates.

“Aptma had already proposed to the government for 100 percent refinance for the export-oriented textile industry across the value chain including spinning and weaving industry.

The loans of textile industry have touched to lowest ebb of 7 per cent of Rs7 trillion, which amounts to hardly Rs500 billion mainly due to energy crisis,” he said.

He further said that Aptma has proposed that either the government should reduce interest rate to 8 per cent or extend the facility of 100 percent Export Refinance to the industry.

The Aptma spokesman expressed fear that both the investment and industry viability will be hit hard as there was no BMR of US $5billion in next three years to maintain production capacity of $15 billion.

“The last BMR took place back in 2005. The regional competitors made new investment exponentially during this period through sector specific interventions. India did the same and achieved positive results to manage rising cotton crop and unemployment,” he said.

The Aptma delegation would also meet Minister for Petroleum to discuss planning for winter season, starting from December until February next. He said the industry was being deprived of two days gas supply a week despite an assurance by President Asif Ali Zardari.

He said the Aptma had offered partnership under Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for setting LNG terminal without seeking any sovereign guarantee.

On Gas Infrastructure Development Surcharge, the Aptma spokesman said the delegation would stress the government to ensure expeditious implementation of Rs24 billion surcharge for the development of gas infrastructure including LNG, IP and TAPI gas import projects.