KARACHI: President SITE Association of Industry (SAI), Abdul Hadi has expressed concern for non-alignment of priorities and said that on the one hand, the ministry of commerce and the Prime Minister want to increase exports and encourage industrialisation and on the other hand, the ministry of petroleum is not providing Karachi with committed energy resources.
He said that the media and government are praising the growth in Large Scale Manufacturing and exports and decline in current account deficit during the last few months. Export industry is running at almost full capacity around the country, which is a good sign for the country.
President SITE said that this achievement was possible due to timely intervention by the federal government during Covid-19 first period by offering low cost financing for new capital expenditure - TERF Financing, improved liquidity for the industry by providing timely refunds and other cost reduction measures such as containing electric and gas costs for few industrial sectors.
Abdul Hadi however, expressed dissatisfaction over provision of basic utilities to industries and said that the oldest and largest industrial area of Pakistan S.I.T.E., KARACHI, is still deprived of consistent and committed gas pressure due to which various pockets of the industrial area are struggling to cater for the surge in post Covid-19 domestic and global demand of their products.
"The federal government committed in October 2020 to provide consistent supply of gas to Karachi industries at substantially increased tariff by injecting imported RLNG into the system during winter months to avoid low pressure and gas load shedding issues. Karachi industrialists reluctantly agreed to this proposition in order to fulfil their domestic and export commitments," he added. To their dismay, the gas availability and pressure at various industrial areas of the city is still not suitable for production, resulting in order cancellation and loss for daily wage earners who are essential part of the supply chain.
The SITE President remarked that apparently there is a lack of commitment to improve gas pressure and supply to Karachi industries in general and SITE in particular which is causing lower exports and unemployment in the SITE area.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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