Industrialists have expressed concern over Sui Southern Gas Company's (SSGC) decision to suspend gas supply to industrial areas of the city for one day. The SSGC, in a circular, has informed that all industrial units, including captive plants, will remain closed on May 15. The SSGC further informed that its surveillance teams will be monitoring compliance of the order and have been fully authorised to disconnect gas supply for 48 hours of any customer if found violating the schedule.
The industrialists said that industrial units were fully operating to complete orders on time, as Ramazan was approaching, during which working hours were reduced considerably to facilitate workers. They said it was a general practice all over the world that utility service providers held consultative meetings with the stakeholders before taking any major decision. They regretted that in Pakistan utility companies took decisions in isolation and did not bother about its consumers.
They were of the view that SSGC must hold consultative meeting with its consumers before taking any major decision, such as, going for gas supply suspension to industrial areas. Former President, Site Association of Industry (SAI), Jaweed Bilwani, pointed out that only few days back, all industrial units in Site industrial area had suffered huge losses due to non-availability of gas for four days.
He said that on one hand the government was importing LNG to supplement gas supply and keep the industrial units operating, while on the other, it was carrying out gas load-shedding in industrial areas and keeping CNG stations closed for almost four days a week. He said that the SSGC circular mentioned nothing as to why it had notified a gas holiday for industrial areas. He further said that the country's exports were fast shrinking due to high cost of production and non-availability of sufficient gas, power, and water.
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