“Punjab’s textile industry is being deprived of gas supplies despite being third on the priority list. We are getting just one quarter of our allocated gas supply though domestic demand has dipped significantly on rising temperatures,” S M Tanveer, Chairman Aptma-Punjab, told the media.
Battered by gas shortages, rising exchange rate and high cost of electricity, Punjab’s textile industry is verging on closure. A good number of factories, small and large, are claimed to have already closed down or cutting production to avoid financial losses.
On top of energy shortages, the textile exporters contend that the appreciating exchange rate and rising cost of production was wiping out their liquidity. Punjab’s industry is paying Rs7 billion per month more than their counterparts in Karachi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on account of partial gas supplies and power cuts and lost about Rs12bn owing to the rupee revaluation against their exports and committed future orders.
“The government must provide us compensatory rebate on our exports to make up for the losses on account of the rupee revaluation. We had contracted orders at an exchange rate of Rs105-108 a dollar. What we have got against our export remittances is Rs98-99 a dollar,” said Syed Zia Alamadar Hussain, a knitwear exporter from Faisalabad.
