Textile industry badly hurt by loadshedding

The Textile industry had reached the brink of disaster as a result of forced load shedding of electricity and the recent hike in the prices of Petroleum products. The Government was playing havoc with the industry and exports. The recent price hike in Petroleum products would escalate the cost of doing business and would push the Textile Industry to the verge of total collapse.
This was stated by Chairman Pakistan Textile Exporters Association Muhammad Yousaf and Vice Chairman Rehan Naseem Bharara, while talking to newsmen. They said that the textile sector was presently exposed to tough competition and the biggest problem was the ever-increasing cost of doing business in the country. They criticised the unscheduled and arbitrary, forced load shedding of electricity. They said that the Government had agreed that load shedding would not exceed 2 hours for the industry, but in practice, more then 6 hours of irregular and frequent load shedding was being implemented. As a result, the production program of mills was totally disrupted and productivity had been reduced.
They said that the Textile industry was already facing a crisis of being overburdened and the new increase would shatter productivity, which had already come down by 50% due to the indiscriminate load shedding of electricity. They said that regressive measures would have a negative impact on textile exports, which were already showing a declining trend over the last few months and had gone down by 10% in the last eleven months, as compared to the same period of the preceding year.
Both leaders of the PTEA mentioned that the textile sector was experiencing depression and stagnation since the last year, continuously, due to the energy crisis of gas and electricity load shedding. Resultantly, industrial production had significantly fallen, which in turn, caused a decline in the exports of textile products. This new burden on industrial manufacturing would render Pakistani textiles further uncompetitive in the international market, they said.
They emphasised that due to the unjustified and unprovoked policies of the Government, the cost of doing business had become exorbitantly high and as a consequence, numerous units were working under-capacity. Many industries had closed-down and several had decided to close. They said that the outcome of the escalating problems of the textile industry would be in the form of joblessness and the resultant law and order and industrial peace disruption.
Muhammad Yousaf said that textile was the baseline of Pakistan's economy, but due to distorted priorities, this base was gradually being eroded and the industry and exports being crushed. He demanded the Government to set its priorities right and accord preferential treatment to the textile sector and save the industry and the economy from collapsing.
Textile leaders warned that if such negative measures continued, industrial production would face disaster and total collapse. The economy of the country would be ruined and there would be irreparable loss on the export front and the loss of the international market.