Textile Mills in Punjab have suffered heavy financial losses due to discriminatory gas and electricity load-shedding during past six months, mills owners said.
"Punjab is the only province which is subjected to 3-day gas load-shedding a week. On the other, during the four days when gas is available, there is no pressure, so power generation cannot be made without full pressure," Mian Faraz Shafiq Alam said.
Moreover, he said, Punjab textile sector is facing 4 to 6 hours electricity load-shedding. "If gas and electricity is not available how can we survive? Besides high mark up rates of the banks have discouraged the textile millers to make further investments in the sector, he added.
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has also stated the federal government had assured him that equal load shedding would be carried out in all provinces for two days, but it was only Punjab that is experiencing the load shedding.
The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) said that around 40 per cent of the industrial units in Punjab run on gas and gas suspension means no production by almost half of the industry in Punjab and a loss of millions of rupees to the exchequer.