Weavers and Knitters have expressed their strong resentment against petroleum prices hike and two percent tariff increase in electricity and warned that these hikes would not only increase the cost of production, but also jam the wheel of the industry and pushed the large scale unemployment in the country.
Talking to newsmen, Chaudhry Salamat Ali, Chairman, Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PHMA) North Zone said that the unfair doing business for industrial sector is yielding negative impact on the domestic and foreign investment in Pakistan, which is registered 30 percent during the current fiscal year. Most of the industrialists are facing financial crunch, while the increasing rate of cotton up to Rs 8900 and 40 percent price hike in yarn as well as hoarding and speculation are badly affecting the labour intensive and export oriented value added textile industry.
He demanded to the government that the export of cotton and yarn should be restricted till meeting the demands of the domestic sector and should be eliminated the monopolists and capital Mafia, who are adding fuel to the fire by their speculative activities ignoring the national interests.
Expressing concern over increasing cotton prices in the country, Chaudhry Salamat pointed out that value added textile industry, is already facing severe crisis due to gas and electricity load shedding, high cost of borrowing from Banks and too much high cost of necessarily raw material, which is building up the doing business. The export of cotton and yarn should be restricted to control the non-stop prices of raw material and export should be allowed after meeting the domestic demand of yarn consuming industry.
Meanwhile, powerlooms owners and their labourers staged protest outside their factories in Jhang, Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh, Kamalia, Sidhar and other parts of the Faisalabad Division against shortage of yarn, which is a essential raw material of the powerlooms industry. Protestors mentioned that the unscheduled load shedding of electricity is adding fuel to fire and unemployed workers are facing difficulties to meeting the domestic life as per routine, while condemned the recent two percent hike in electricity tariff, upwards Petroleum prices and severe gas-shedding in Faisalabad.
Talking to newsmen, the leaders of the All Pakistan Cotton Powerlooms Association (APCPA) has strongly demanded that the export of cotton and yarn should be banned till overcoming the shortfall of cotton and severe price hike of yarn in the domestic markets of the country. Choudhry Abdul Haq, Chairman, Muhammad Akram Ghouri, Vice Chairman of APCPA pointed out that Rs 4000 per bag of cotton yarn registered within a month, which is hampering the weaving textile sector including hosieries and other yarn consuming ancillaries industries. They pointed out that more than 30,000 powerlooms have already been closed down due to unfair able doing business.
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