Padlocked: 235 industrial units wound up last year

KPCCI president says between 700 and 800 factories closed

PESHAWAR: Being at the forefront of the war against militancy, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has not just lost its sons to the violence but also lost the industrial units that held its economy together, one after the other.

The last two years have been the most troublesome. The number of sick industrial units did reduce from 478, only because owners of 235 such facilities called it a day for good.

According to the K-P Bureau of Statistics, there were 2,299 units in the province during 2011-12, of which 1,821 were functional while 478 were closed. Over the next two years, the number of running factories inched to 1,888 while the number of those shutting down forever kept increasing.

“The number of industrial units for the year 2013-14 declined due to the winding up of 235 industrial units,” reads a 2015 bureau report, quoting the directorate of industries and commerce.

Sick to the core

Swabi leads the line with 107 factories closing over the past 24 months. The district was followed by Peshawar with 72 and Abbottabad with 48. Furthermore, three were shut down in Bannu, 18 in DI Khan, one in Battagram, two in Buner, three in Charsadda and two in Chitral.

Also, there are two closed units in Lower Dir, two in Hangu, 22 in Haripur, four in Kohat, one in Kohistan, two in Lakki Marwat, six each in Malakand and Mansehra, seven in Mardan, 18 in Nowshera and seven in Swat. There are no closed units in Upper Dir, Karak and Shangla while the word industry is unknown to Torghar district.

Up and running

A large number of the running industrials units, 475, exists in Peshawar. The provincial capital is followed by 187 in Nowshera, 185 in Mardan, 180 in Buner, 157 in Swat, 150 Haripur, 146 in Swabi and only one in Shangla.

K-P Chamber of Commerce and Industries President Fuad Ishaq feared the total number of closed factories may have been as high as 800. According to Ishaq, 300 flour mills alone have been closed recently.

“We are grateful to the federal government, which not only restored our privileges, including exemption of income tax in 2010-12, but also gave a similar exemption for new industries up until 2018,” Ishaq told The Express Tribune.

Ishaq cited the precarious law and order situation as the chief reason behind the closure of industries. “Extortion, power outages, taxes and an insecure environment for investors are also equally responsible.” He hoped that investors will regain interest once the government announced tax exemptions and rebates.

The KPCCI president said K-P’s industrial units require only 165 megawatts of electricity, 0.045% of the province’s total generation. “Our production capacity stands at 7,000 megawatts. Yet we face prolonged power outages.” Ishaq hoped the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will give a new lease of life to the industry of K-P and Balochistan.

He termed the approval of Rs2.5 billion for the construction of Expo Centre vital for promoting trade.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2015.