Textile industry demands priority in gas supply

Mills run on thin margins and cannot afford other fuels.

FAISALABAD:

Textile manufacturers have rejected the impression being created that the fertiliser industry should get priority over textile mills in gas supply, saying it is a “false and baseless propaganda on the part of some vested interests”.

In support of their claim, they remind the government that they employ over 40 per cent of the workforce, generate 65 per cent of export earnings and contribute 8.5 per cent to country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Briefing the media on Saturday, Pakistan Textile Exporters Association Chairman Rana Arif Tauseef said the labour-intensive industry should be preferred in energy supply. “Current economic situation demands that the government give priority to saving millions of jobs and ensuring gas supply to keep the wheels of industry running,” he added.

Tauseef described the suggestion that textile mills should use diesel in place of gas as misleading and said gas being used in stentor machines of textile processing mills could not be replaced by any other means.

Textile mills were working on thin margins and could not afford to continue production on alternative fuel, he said and pointed out gas outages had been extended from three days to four days a week.

According to the industrialists, gas supply to the mills has been stopped for 153 days so far in the current calendar year.

In order to make up for the gas shortfall, the textile industry was said to be utilising alternative fuels, costing four times than the price of gas and sought government’s subsidy to better compete in the international market.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2011.