Suspension of gas in winter: business community slams decision

The business community of Multan has strongly resented over the injudicious decision of ministry of petroleum for suspension of gas for industries in winter and termed the move unilateral and arrogant. Government should shelve its gas outage plan to bring the country's economy out of stagnation as it would not only hamper the industrial growth, but would also put jobs of millions of workers at stake, besides adversely impacting the 13 billion dollar plus exports.
President of Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI), Mian Iqbal Hassan has said that gas curtailment in winter would push the textile industry to the wall that was already facing huge problems. Government should stop unilateral policies and decisions as country, at present, is going through a very serious economic crisis in terms of escalating cost of production, they added. He termed energy shortage as the prime cause of economic instability and decline in industrial growth as about 50 percent production capacity of textile industry is already dysfunctional due to energy shortage.
Mian Iqbal said that Government should not shift the total energy shortfall to the industry. In 13 billion dollars plus textile exports, Punjab is the major stakeholder with 6 billion dollars share. Pointing out the declining trend in exports, Iqbal Hassan explained that country exported goods worth US3432 million in July-August period of current fiscal against exports of US3825 million dollars in same period of outgoing fiscal showing a decline of 10.27 percent. Exports were consecutively showing declining trend since July and export numbers in coming months might be even worse as the textile industry in Punjab will be deprived of its basic fuels, he mentioned.
He was of the view that at a time when all the neighbouring countries are on path of rapid growth, the economic situation in Pakistan is getting out of hand. It would not only the production loss alone but the loss of export orders and it is a known fact that foreign buyers are diverting their orders to the other regional countries. He urged the govt to take serious cognisance of the matter and take progressive steps to endure the industry and focus should also be on the value addition as textile sector need to enhance quality and production capabilities. Iqbal Hassan also urged to ensure gas supply to textile export sector in winter.