Gas Supply of 100mn Cubic Feet to Ensure Continuation of Work for 3mn Textile Workers

The Federal Government of Pakistan’s decision to ensure gas supply of 100 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) to the textile industry in Punjab would ensure continuation of work for around 3 million textile workers, said All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Punjab chairman S M Tanveer at a press conference.

Mr. Tanveer said if the decision was not taken by the Government, Punjab-based textile firms would have had no option but to lay off these workers during three months of winter, due to non-availability of gas supply to the mills, as they used to in previous years.

According to the APTMA official, the decision of the Government would discard the sense of deprivation among the textile workers in Punjab.

Uninterrupted gas supply to textile mills in Punjab help increase textile exports by US$ 1 billion every month, and this huge inflow of foreign exchange would stabilize the Pakistani rupee in line with the announcement of Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, he added.

The Government of Pakistan recently decided to divert 85 mmcfd of gas to industrial units from Independent Power Producers (IPP) in order to enable the textile industry to capitalize on the advantages from the recently granted Generalized System of Preferences Plus (GSP+) status by the European Union (EU).

Appreciating the move, the APTMA official said each and every worker of the Punjab-based textile industry was acknowledging the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Chief Minister of Punjab, Governor of Punjab, Federal Finance Minister and Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources for their support to Punjab textile industry.

70 percent of the textile industry of Pakistan was located in Punjab and this facility will be translated into economic wellbeing of the people of Pakistan, he added.