Spokesman of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has stressed the government for a prudent use and judicious distribution of gas supply to stakeholders in the larger interest of national economy.
Negating the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources allegation that the textile industry was taking U-turn on its commitment to accepting four days a week gas supply, the spokesman said it was not the textile industry but the Ministry itself that was taking a U-turn on the agreed formula.
He said the SNGPL had curtailed gas supply to the textile mills in Faisalabad for four days instead of three days during the current week. It was set to repeat similar curtailment for textile mills in Lahore-I and Lahore-II zones, resulted in huge protest from the Aptma.
However, the sanity prevailed in the concerned quarters and the SNGPL did not curtail gas to the textile mills in Lahore zones for fourth consecutive day, the spokesman added. He said a prudent use of gas supply could only be ensured if both the domestic and the textile industry consumers on the SNGPL network were given priority during the winter load management plan. He said there was no justification in supplying gas to fertiliser industry when it was likely to end current year in surplus with import of 700,000 tones urea from abroad. The government could import another 100,000 tones in case the shortage was still persist but supply to domestic and textile sector should not be ruined simply to subsidise the fertiliser sector.
He said a curtailment of gas supply to transport sector for the time being would save jobs of 15 million textile workers, who are the breadwinners of their families. The spokesman said both the fertiliser and transport sectors were consuming 560MMCFD gas in total against 200MMCFD consumed by the textile industry. He said the textile industry was ready to honour its commitment with the Ministry provided there was no sudden disruption of gas on agreed formula. He reminded the Ministry that the textile industry has already faced gas curtailment of more 150 days during the summer this year.
Therefore, the textile industry has already faced more than 90 days closure during the current calendar year and any further curtailment would result in huge loss in terms of foreign exchange and jobs. He said the textile industry had contributed $14 billion to national exports last year and was set to contribute more if uninterrupted gas is supplied in the future.