Energy problems: Businesses vent anger at caretakers

Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry says power shortage has disrupted business operations.

FAISALABAD:

The Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry has hit out at the previous and caretaker governments, saying neither of them have been able to tackle energy crisis in the country, which has worsened, resulting in 17 to 18 hours of outages in urban areas.

Power shortage has disrupted business operations and industrial production and this has reduced their cash flow and threatened the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of daily wage earners, said FCCI Acting President Chaudhry Muhammad Boota in a statement on Wednesday.

According to businessmen, about 50% of the country’s textile exports come from Faisalabad, but protracted electricity outages and suspension of gas supply throughout last week are hitting the industry hard.

“This will not only lead to loss of export proceeds at a time when foreign currency reserves are declining, but export targets fixed under the Strategic Trade Policy Framework (2012-15) will be missed,” Boota said.

Owing to the energy crisis, foreign buyers are said to be shifting focus to Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka and Pakistani exporters are losing their share in international markets.

Boota pointed out that Faisalabad has about 100% rate of recovery for electricity bills, despite that the city was enduring prolonged outages with supply of 900-950 megawatts of power compared to demand for about 2,600MW.

The city has a huge number of small and medium enterprises, which cannot produce power itself that costs as high as Rs30 to 35 per unit.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2013.

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