KARACHI: Textile sector is facing a severe crisis of gas supply and massive textile mills in Sindh and Balochistan have shut down their production due to shortage and disruption of gas supply.
According to Zahid Mazhar, Chairman All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), Southern Zone, the textile industry of Sindh and Balochistan are presently compelled to close their production or operate at 50 percent of their production capacity due to severe shortage and disruption of gas supply along with low gas pressure.
This disruption of gas supply is despite the fact that the government has increased gas tariff in February 2023 by around 30 percent, he mentioned.
He said that shortage of gas supply to the export-oriented textile industry of Sindh and Balochistan has created havoc resulting in closure of a number of industries and massive decline in the growth of large scale manufacturing and textile exports.
Textile exports from July 2022 to April 2023 have declined by over 14 percent as compared to July 2021 to April 2022, he informed.
He also highlighted that the Sindh and Balochistan are producing around 85 percent of the total natural gas produced in the country. However, they are denied their rights guaranteed under Article 158 of the Constitution of Pakistan.
Zahid Mazhar demanded that the gas being produced in Sindh and Balochistan should at first be supplied to these provinces and after fulfilling the requirement of Sindh and Balochistan the surplus to be supplied to other provinces. On the contrary, the gas of the two provinces is being supplied to Punjab which is against Article 158.
He further said that the textile industry is not only facing the problem of weekly closure of Gas for two days but also facing the problem of low gas pressure throughout the week. This is resulting in heavy production losses, de-industrialisation and unemployment.
He further said that the gas supply suspension to the Sindh-based industry that contributes 52 percent to the country’s total exports is resulting in colossal loss of foreign exchange and revenue.
Chairman APTMA South Zone has requested the governments of Sindh and Balochistan to take serious notice of shortage and low pressure of gas on urgent basis and issue instructions to SSGCL to ensure continuous and uninterrupted gas supply to the industry of Sindh and Balochistan in general and export-oriented sector in particular, otherwise more and more industries would be compelled to close their operations which will create not only irreparable losses to the economy of Pakistan but would also create law & order situation due to unemployment of large number of workers employed in these industries.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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