Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGP) has notified industries regarding additional load shedding, to be done because of an annual maintenance of its gas fields.
A leading textile industrialist Mian Faraz Alam told Business Recorder on Sunday the SNGP has notified that gas would not be supplied to his spinning mill on August 02, 03, 07, 08 and 09, as an annual maintenance work of its gas fields would be going on.
He said his mill is among the three hundreds mills in the area which is adjacent to Raiwaind. Alam said the SNGP is already carrying out a weekly load shedding for the industries and an additional gas shutdown would further reduce the productions.
He said the Lahore Electricity Supply Company (LESCO) is also effecting load shedding for four hours on a daily basis for the industries. He criticised the increase in the interest rates of banks and said this would further increase the costs of doing businesses.
Alam said the spinning industry had taken a sigh of relief after the withdrawal of the RD on the exports of yarn. However, he said an increase in the interest rates of banks would not control the inflation but would make the Pakistani goods costlier in international markets.
He claimed that anti-industry policies of the government has made it difficult for the industrialists to further invest in the country as the costs of doing businesses in the country is already too high. He said the industrial growth of Pakistan is the lowest in the region while the rate of inflation is the highest as compared to other countries in the region.
Despite a strong opposition by the private sector, the government adopted the path of rental power stations which jacked up the cost of Pakistani products manifold.