KARACHI: A recent sample survey organised by the Central Government has shown that the textile mills are not working to full capacity and there is a creeping rise in prices of cloth. The survey has shown that the per capita consumption level of cloth has remained almost stagnant and that the availability of certain essential types of cloth is not adequate.

The highest efficiency was 90 per cent and the lowest 53 per cent as against subsistence efficiency level of 93 per cent for plants spinning the same counts range from Pakistani cottons. Waste losses ranged between 15 per cent to 18 per cent as against 10 per cent on Pakistani cotton spun in latest plants abroad. The minimum figures of labour deployment recorded in the sample study was 3.3 operatives and maximum in East Pakistan 10 operatives per 1,000 spindles against 2.2 per 1,000 spindles in modern units abroad.

In the weaving sector the bulk of the mills operated at 50 per cent efficiency against 85 per cent minimum subsistence level of efficiency. Overall maintenance expenditure allocation of our national industry is well over five per cent of the capital cost as against permissible limit of one per cent in modern plants. — Agency

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2019