The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) has refused to provide load to a new towel factory set up in Federal B. Area by a leading textile exporter in preparation for the quota-free regime commencing from January 2005.
Syed Muzammil Hussain of Shahi Textile said on Saturday that he made a huge investment in setting up a new factory and when everything was complete he received a note from the KESC Executive Engineer Planning (SB)-111 saying, "it is regretted to inform you that due to the KESC distribution system constraints your load application could not be approved."
He said that the KESC refusal would delay production of the new factory, due to start in January next, for another six months, as the exporter would have to purchase generator to put the factory in action.
A sizeable investment of Rs 40.5 million has already gone into the new set-up while another Rs 4.5 million would be required to buy a generator.
Under the KESC rules request about load could not be decided until the factory is equipped with machines to be surveyed by the KESC engineers to determine the actual load needed.
Muzammil said had he known about the utility's refusal earlier he would have arranged generators in time to avoid delay in production, which would harm the exporters' race in the tough competition phase ahead.
Meanwhile, Chairman F.B. Area Association of Trade and Industry Amin Manya criticised the KESC for not providing load to the export-oriented industries and said that its behaviour was against the avowed government policy that the new investors would not confront any problem, especially relating to infra-structure.
He said that due to frequent unannounced load-shedding by the utility, production in the existing units has suffered badly and nobody could think of setting a new factory or expand the existing ones in view of the malfunctioning and inefficiency of KESC.