In his statement here Wednesday he said that with the current duty free ATP agreement with EU for the garment and textile sector it had seemed that the garment industry was poised for a healthy growth in exports and an addition of about 100,000 new jobs. The current tragedy of complete suspension of gas and electricity to textile industry in Punjab and very erratic supply in other provinces has started to have an effect on the garment industry as a whole.

He said textile mills are not in a position to honor delivery dates and further have reduced the price validity of fabric quotation to a few hours. It has become harder to match our last year figures let alone benefit from the ATP's. It is essential that the supplies are restored immediately. He said the textile industry in Punjab is losing $20-30 million a day due to the suspension of gas and electricity.

He said that according to SNGPL, the country is currently facing a shortfall of 700 mmcfd. The total demand on the SNGPL network is 2,600 mmcfd and the supply is about 1,900 mmcfd. The domestic consumers have a total demand of 650 Mmcft gas and is provided with almost the same demand. The general industry demands 440 Mmcft of gas and was provided with only 250 Mmcft gas. Similarly Textile industry has total demand of 210 Mmcft and was provided with 120 Mmcft gas.Fertilizer sector requires 240 Mmcft gas and is provided with 175 Mmcft of gas. CNG sector requires 325 Mmcft gas and was provided with 260 Mmcft gas. Therefore only the textile sector is receiving only 57% of its total requirement, whereas other sectors are being compensated at textile industry's expense, he concluded.