Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf has said that matters relating to electricity for textile sector will be resolved on priority basis and efforts are underway to provide maximum relief in load shedding to boost this sector.
He said this while presiding over a meeting of all Pakistan Textile Mills Association (PTMA) and various other textile related and export associations here on Thursday. Federal Minister for Textile Industry Rana Farooq Saeed Khan was also present in the meeting.
The Minister for Water and Power said that the government is taking all steps to enhance electricity generation to bridge the gap between demand and supply. Various fast track projects of about 1500MW will start generation within next two to three months, he added. He said that the plants are working in full capacity and there is no idle capacity in system. The Minister said that textile is backbone of country's economy and all their suggestions will be given due consideration. He said the government is ready to purchase captive power from industry as per policy and will encourage the industrialists in this regard.
The meeting decided to segregate the industrial and domestic feeders in the textile industry regions at the earliest. The meeting also asked the textile representatives to submit their concrete suggestions to improve the system, captive power availability and tariff issues shortly for consideration.
It also decided that the next meeting will be held on Wednesday in Lahore with Federal Minister in the chair to take decision on power related issues for textile sector. Earlier, the textile sector representatives briefed the meeting on the matters relating to electricity and asked the government to provide maximum relief in the load shedding. They also gave their suggestions on tariff and other issues.