'Textile industry on course of total disaster'

Textile industry is on the course of total disaster as production and exports are falling month by month due to persistent gas closure and electricity load shedding in Punjab, said Arif Tauseef, Chairman of Pakistan Textile Exporters Association, while talking to newsmen here on Wednesday.
The industry in Punjab has remained totally closed for the last 35 days as the gas authorities had forced indefinite shutdown. This lengthy gas cut-off had followed irregular load shedding in earlier months which resulted in decline of textile exports by 159.5 million dollars in October and 193.9 million dollars in November topping at 225 million dollars in December of last year. The shortfall was visible more prominently in sub sectors, he stated. Export of cotton cloth went down by 44.8 million square metres, down by 26.41 percent, knitwear 4.59 million dozens short which is 37.65 percent, bed wear 8342 metric tons 32.75 percent, Ttwels 904 metric tons 7.83 percent and garments 0.19 million dozens which is 6.75 percent in December.
Expressing disappointment on the declining trend in textile exports, Arif said that textile sector is the backbone of the national economy as it has direct contribution to domestic production and foreign exchange earnings. Gas shortages in conjunction with electricity load shedding created immense problems for the industries and negatively impacted the production process as well and export of value-added textiles. Textile industry lost 225 million dollars exports in December and is likely to lose another 250 million dollars in January. About 600 million dollars shortfall in three consecutive months is a big setback to the national economy, he said, and apprehended that if the situation remains constant, this shortfall could touch one billion dollars mark in February. Unprecedented energy shortage was the prime reason behind substantial drop in exports, he added. Situation arising out of gas outage would lead to further decline in exports, huge labour layoffs and decrease in the revenue of the Government, he added and said that negative growth in the textile exports would adversely affect the country's economic growth.
Arif emphasised that the Government must set priorities for uninterrupted gas supply to industries to resolve energy shortage issue. Huge gas reserves have been explored and waiting for execution. Government should execute these projects on priority basis to bridge the rising gap between demand and supply of gas, he said. Billions of dollars investment on machinery is becoming redundant owing to long hours' load shedding of electricity and no gas supply. Energy supply and economic growth were interlinked and gas suspension had slowed down the pace of industrial growth in the country, he said.