FAISALABAD: All Pakistan Cotton Power Looms Association (APCPLA) chairman Khurram Akhlaq Manj expressed concern over the passage of Supplementary Finance Bill 2021 (Money Budget) from the National Assembly.
He said with the approval of the mini budget, the pressure of inflation on the industrial sector and the people would increase which would lead to the death of the poor.
According to the IMF terms, the basic electricity tariff will have to be increased by Rs 0.50, while according to the agreement, further increase will be made in 2022-23.
Putting an additional burden of Rs 350 billion on the people in the mini budget is a drone attack on the people and the industrial sector.
He said that due to increase in prices of electricity, gas and petrol and taxes in exchange for loans from IMF, business activities were already declining due to soaring inflation and there was a trend of severe downturn in business.
The new money will meet the budget, but the lives of the people will be doubled due to inflation. He termed the Rs 4.30 per unit increase in fuel adjustment as unrealistic and said that the industrial sector was being severely affected by the torment of fuel adjustment every month after the costly electricity.
Expensive electricity has led to a steady rise in the prices of all necessities of life.
Chairman All Pakistan Cotton Power Looms Association Khurram Akhlaq Manj has said that skyrocketing electricity prices have caused financial difficulties to small scale industrialists in Faisalabad.
Power Looms owners have cut textile production by up to 25 per cent due to rising yarn and electricity prices, affecting workers’ employment. He expressed these views while addressing a meeting of Power Looms owners.
Rana Khurram Akhlaq Manj said that there are about 200,000 units of Power Looms in Textile City Faisalabad from where millions of meters of cloth are produced daily and supplied to dyeing and processing mills, but due to continuous increase in electricity prices, production cost has increased. As a result, the owners have stopped making the fabric up to 25 percent.
Owners say it is becoming impossible to run power looms as the price of electricity has reached Rs 32 per unit. Workers in the Power Loom industry are also worried about the decline in textile production, which has eroded government policies. The chairman said that he had been appealing to the government for several months to reduce the price of electricity which was useless.With each increase in electricity rates, Power Looms are being hit hard, which is becoming a major cause of the current crisis in the industry.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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