National Assembly's Standing Committee on Textile observed on Wednesday the gas pipeline projects are uncertain to begin, saying "vested interest" left the natural resources unexplored in the country to increase Pakistan's dependency on imported energy.
Member of the committee, federal legislator Sardar Talib Hassan Nakai said the foreign gas pipeline projects are uncertain to start for reasons which he could not come to know, despite asking the concerned quarters.
At a meeting which the committee held with members of different value-added textile associations under the banner of Pakistan Apparel Forum at PHMA House, he questioned as to why exploration of Thar coal could not be started for 30 years. The meeting was overwhelmingly attended by Federal Textile Minister, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, member of the committee, textile associations' representatives who discussed the issues of energy crisis in connection to textile sector's regression.
Showing regrets, he said, the government had done nothing in the last four years since it took over the powers after February 18 polls, however, hoping the energy crisis could be solved with starting work on Thar coal project. Citing Dr Samar Mubarakmand, Nakai said he had assured the legislators of extracting energy from Thar coal field if external political pressures did not restrict him from accomplishing the task.
He observed the gas pipeline projects were uncertain to start for it needed billion of dollars' investments. He said the committee should pledge for needed funds to release through government's concerned departments to undertake development of coal energy projects. He said the scientists demanded immediate release of Rs 1 billion for initiating energy projects.
The federal lawmaker said none was replying to his questions regarding why the Thar coal field remained tapped for 30 years. He said if the coal project started by now would at least take three to four years to produce energy. Chairman of the committee Haji Muhammad Akram Ansari observed the government did not act on the members' recommendations. He said it was primarily the government's discretion to generate electricity from gas, electricity, oil or water, but observed the industry appeared more worried than the concerned authorities.
He said Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) had also shown inability to govern the price mechanism as it was compelled to act in line with the orders from upper quarters. He said Nepra had also unable to perform its duties for such reasons. However, he said the committee would make efforts to get the needed funds released for the coal projects to start its operations for early power generations. He said it was a sad surprise to come to know about the nosedive fall in textile sector export from $14 billion to nearly $10 billion. He termed the four billion dollars decline in textile export a "tragedy".
Showing concerns, he said despite textile sector was on the government's list-2 to provide it with gas but it never practically happened. He said LNG import is a temporary and expensive step to meet energy shortfall. Chairman, Council of All Pakistan Textile Associations (Capta) Zubair Motiwala pointed out that the country's chief textile export stood $14 billion with the value-added textile sector provided 42 percent of the nation's total employment.
He said the textile sector is facing acute energy and gas shortage to continue production. He said the government also failed to diversify other (non-textile) sectors which are about 40 percent of the total economy. He said the federal commerce ministry at least should focus on these sectors to increase the country's economic growth. He slammed the commerce ministry has thoroughly failed to increase the size of non-textile sector from 40 percent to at least 50 percent.
He said the energy shortfall scaled down the textile sector's production to mere 33 percent as 66 percent manufacture units closed down their operations. He said under such abnormal circumstance, the country would not be able to survive. Motiwala said despite the US provided Pakistan with a free-market access; the local industries would not be able to export items to the trans-Atlantic venues for their downsized production capacity due to the energy shortfall.
He said the government has failed to develop infrastructure and harness the sector with modern-day knowledge expertise to grow the textile and other sectors. He also raised the issue of KESC's warning to the local industries of cutting off their electricity connections if the units did not declare their captive power plants.
He pointed out that the Bangladesh textile export reached $19 billion a year, whereas Pakistan is faced with a sharp decline from its normal trade of $14 billion. He said India has withdrawn sales tax from the textile sector whereas Pakistan despite exporting 80 percent of the products is slapped with the tax, urging the government to drop the levy to enable the sector to grow.
He said Bangladesh is providing gas to its industry at 40 percent rate comparing to Pakistan's tariff of 100 percent, adding how a local industry's products could be competitive against other nations on the global markets. Chairman Pakistan Apparel Forum, Javed Bilwani, said the energy shortage brought around 40 knitting and weaving units to permanent closures, while machinery is being re-exported to China and other far-eastern countries.
He said the government's policies are uncertain as 56 percent gas price increase is witnessed while electricity tariff went up by 62 percent in the last four years. He also raised customs rebate and sales tax issues during the meeting. The committee's another member Rashid Godil said the federal government has completely ignored Sindh province particularly Karachi in its development policies and lent no mega projects in the last three years to the city.
He urged the Sindh government to undertake solar energy projects to meet the increasing demand for electricity in the province particularly Karachi. A female committee member, Tasneem Siddiqui, suggested the government to ban the supply of CNG to public transport for at least one year across the country and divert the gas to industrial and household use with a view to stem the declining production of the manufacturing sectors.
She said the public transport should solely be run on petrol and diesel rather than on gas at the expense of country's key manufacturing sectors. She said public needed gas for household use and not for plying their vehicle. Tasneem urged the political parties to shed the fears of vote bank decline if such policies were introduced. She said with electricity theft at peak, now people are taking illegal gas connections, depriving the nation of valuable fuel. She also suggested the government to install smart meters to overcome the energy theft.
Rafiq Godil said the non-performing loans of the textile sector have reached 162 percent, depicting a bleak picture of the entire sector. He said the country's knitwear export has been $2 billion which declined to $1.3 billion at present. He said the sector is also providing 11 percent employment in the country.