'Textile exports worth $2.5 billion at risk under uncertain energy supply'

Central Chairman APTMA S M Tanveer has warned that the textile industry exports worth 2.5 billion dollar would be at risk if energy supply remains uncertain. Furthermore, he apprehended that the industry would be reluctant from undertaking further investment if energy supply was not ensured timely by the government.
He was addressing a press conference at the APTMA Punjab office on Thursday evening. Chairman APTMA Punjab Seth Muhammad Akbar, Central Vice Chairman APTMA Wisal A Monnoo and Senior Vice Chairman APTMA Punjab Syed Ali Ahsan were also present on the occasion.
Chairman APTMA expressed his wonders that the government had held an investment conference to allure investment on the one hand and was not tapping the one billion dollar per annum investment decisions penned by the textile industry on the other.
He said textile industry had started performing impressively in 2013 when the government ensured energy supply on priority. However, the upside has come down in 2014 with energy shortage, particularly for the Punjab-based textile industry.
Already, he said, Pakistan's textile industry was lagging behind in the region due to energy constraints.
According to him, the terrible state of affairs could be judged from the fact that Pakistan has invested far low in basic textile against the regional competitors from 2006 to 2013.
He said Pakistan's textile industry could only add 2.7 million new spindles during those six years, mainly by way of replacement of already installed machinery. Meanwhile, he said, Bangladesh with no cotton production installed additional capacity of three million spindles and India added 18.5 million new spindles during the same period.
He said during the same period, Pakistan could hardly add 5,544 shuttle less looms as against 30,204 looms by Bangladesh and 46,881 by India.
S M Tanveer said the stagnation in Pakistan's textile industry was mainly attributed to the non-availability of energy.
Besides, he added, unprecedented increase in energy tariff had proven last straw on industry's back.
Also, he said, the crisis of dollar-rupee parity had further eroded the viability of the export-oriented industry, particularly in Punjab where 70 percent of the total industry was located.
According to him, the present uncertainty is triggering further due to delay in the announcement of textile policy and decision on uninterrupted energy supply to the Punjab-based textile industry during this winter.
Chairman APTMA has urged the government to guarantee gas and electricity supply to the Punjab-based textile industry at regionally competitive rates to utilise capacities fully and to encourage new investment to achieve the target of $26 billion in next five years.
He has further appealed to the Prime Ministerial Committee on Textile Industry with Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the chair to prioritise the textile industry in gas and electricity supplies to stabilise the exports, employment and investments otherwise 40 percent impaired capacity would aggravate further with possibility of shutting of the textile industry. He said that immediate corrective steps could save both the industry and the cotton crop.