Central Chairman APTMA S M Tanveer is taking a high-profile delegation representing entire textile value chain to Islamabad for meeting with Federal Minister for Textile Industry Abbas Khan Afridi and other concerned ministries on Thursday (today). The delegation will have extensive deliberations on the sustainability and growth of the industry.
S M Tanveer said the looming threat of gas disconnection during winter had brought the Punjab-based textile industry to a grinding halt and appeared to become worst in case the government failed to correct the situation. He said the exports had recently witnessed unprecedented drop of $1.4 billion in quantity terms during last seven months and was further likely to lose a total of $2.5 billion ahead if prudent decisions were not made.
He said 70 percent of the textile industry was located in the province of Punjab where it was exposed to unprecedented gas and electricity supply cuts, adding 35 percent of the production capacity was already non-functional due to shutdown of one shift of basic textile industry which was an important part of the textile value chain, designed to operate 24/7 and energy intensive/dependent industry, he added.
According to him, presently, the industry is unable to lift cotton due to energy curtailment and capacity closure and which is again detrimental to the cotton economy in the country.
Chairman APTMA has urged the government to ensure immediately 100MMCFD Gas supply to the Punjab-based textile to keep the industry operational. Further, he said, the APTMA members had also demanded 300MMCFD gas supply to the textile industry based Captive Power Plants from March 2015 onwards. These arrangements will help increase in investment, exportable surplus and employment and economic growth. S M Tanveer has also urged the government to announce the proposed initiatives under the much-awaited Textile Policy enabling the industry to mend structural imbalances.
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