Industrialists deplore gas outage in summer

LAHORE: Industrialists in Punjab have said that continuation of gas load shedding in
summer proves the incompetence of the gas distribution company.

All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Chairman Gohar Ejaz said that the
incentives given by the government to exporters would go in vain, if gas supplies to
the industries in Punjab remained disrupted for several days a week.

Talking to reporters on Monday, he said that the textile industry was geared up to
earn another $4 billion in the last quarter of this fiscal to take textile exports this
year to $14 billion. “We have already achieved an average export of $1.2 billion a
month in the third quarter,” he said.

He claimed that the industry was all set to achieve export of more than $1.3 billion
a month during the last quarter. But, he said, with the current volume of gas supply,
exports would barely touch $2 billion in the quarter.

The APTMA chairman warned that the textile sector would not survive, if its energy
supplies were curtailed by 50 percent. “Mills would soon start defaulting on their
loans,” he said.

He said it would be unfortunate to let the most vibrant and efficient segment of the
economy go bankrupt because of flawed priorities of Sui Northern Gas Pipeline
Limited.

He said this brake on gas supplies was applied at a time when the economic
managers of the country had addressed all concerns of the industry about zero
rating of exports and sales tax on domestic consumption of textile products. “For
the first time the entire textile chain has shown willingness to get itself documented
and enlarge the tax base,” he said.

Gohar said that APTMA’s members would import LNG by forming a consortium
before winter if the government gave a go ahead.

Adil Butt, a leading knitwear exporter, said that many high-tech machines in the
knitwear sector operate with natural gas only. He said that with supplies curtailed to
three and a half days a week the production would shrink by half.

“I am all set to double my production capacity,” he said. “But it would be difficult to

fulfill commitments if gas supplies remained uncertain.” He said there was no
justification for curtailing gas supplies in summer as conditions remained the same
as last October.

Almas Hyder, an engineering entrepreneur, said that the government should have
exercised the option of importing LNG by now. He said that adding 600 million cubic
feet per day (mmfcd) of LNG to the 4,000 mmcfd national gas supply system would
increase the cost by 15 percent, but it would ensure smooth supplies to every one.