Karachi, January 17, 2020: It is a great apathy and irony that SSGC has not kept its promise to restore adequate gas supply with required pressure to the Industries of Karachi which was decided in the negotiations and dialogue held with the MD SSGC subsequent to peaceful protest of industries functioning in seven industrial zones of Karachi held on 13th January, 2020 at the SSGC Office Karachi.
This joint statement issued by Siraj Kassam Teli Chairman Businessmen Group & Former President KCCI, Zubair Motiwala Chairman Council of All Pakistan Textile Associations, Muhammad Jawed Bilwani Chief Coordinator Karachi Industrial Forum, Zain Bashir Spokesperson Karachi Industrial Forum, Saleem Parekh Former Chairman, All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association, Aslam Karsaz Chairman PHMA, Suleman Chawla President SITE Association of Industry, M. Abdullah Abid President Federal B Area Association of Trade & Industry, Rana Naveed Shakoor President Bin Qasim Association of Trade & Industry, Shaheen Ilyas President SITE Super Highway Association of Trade & Industry, Shaikh Umer Rehan President Korangi Association of Trade & Industry, Nasim Akhtar President North Karachi Association of Trade & Industry, Noman Yaqoob President Landhi Association of Trade & Industry after an emergent joint meeting held on 17, January, 2020.
They voiced that the industries of Karachi which contribute 57 percent in the national’s exports are starving for the most essential Raw Material – indigenous gas due to gas outages and most frequent low pressure and it is most unfortunate that the situation of Gas Supply to the Textile Export Industries is worsening every coming day which has brought disastrous effects on the production of export consignments.
The industries from the seven industrial zones in Karachi have reported zero or very low gas pressure. Some industries are operating, however, the overall situation is worse with no improvement at all.
They articulated that the representatives of Federal Govt. wants to convince that Sindh Produce 2500 MMCFD while the Gas receive by consumers is 1100 MMCFD and the difference of Gas 1400 MMCFD given to outside Sindh Province.
They stated that according to an estimate if further 250 MMCFD gas is given to the consumers in Sindh it will resolve the issue of gas shortage in Sindh Province. The industries in Sindh consume 370 MMCFD of gas including the captive power, general and export industries, out of this 370 MMCFD, the consumption of zero rate export industries is around 177 MMCFD which contributes the 57 percent of national textile exports. It can also be said in monitory terms the total national textile exports is around USD 12 billion, while USD 6 billion is generated by the industries of Karachi which consume only 177 MMCFD of gas.
They added that, nevertheless, the figures of Federal Govt. does not match, however if we consider the Sindh Production of 2500 MMCFD of gas, the allocation of gas to industries is 370 MMCFD, percentage-wise it comes to 14.8 percent and consumption of export industry comes to 7.4 percent.
If further 35 MMCFD of gas is provided to exports industries of Karachi which is 1.4 percent of Sindh Gas Production, this will enable to operate the export industries round the clock smoothly. We are demanding this 1.4 percent only but in vain.
They were of the view that on one side Govt. is talking about ease of doing business, enhancement of exports, smooth refund and incentives while on the other side the exports is reduced 4 percent in Dec 2019 over Dec 2018 due to shortage of gas. Fact is that around Rs200 billion of export industries are pending with the Govt. worth Rs90 billion under Sales Tax FASTER, Rs50 billion in old sales tax refunds, Rs40 billion in DLTL, Rs10 billion in Customs Rebate.
They voiced that in such critical scenario when the exporters are facing multiple challenges, one can imagine how can exports be enhanced, GDP increased and Trade Deficit reduced when the export oriented sectors are not provided basic raw material – gas and being treated after other sectors? They further questioned whether supplying gas to less important sectors in futility and depriving gas to export sector will matter to economy?
They fervently appealed the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Chief Minister of Sindh, Federal Minister for Petroleum to take notice of the miseries being faced by industries in Karachi and provide gas on first priority to save the industries from losses and closures to enable the export sector to enhance their exports leading to generation of employment; earning foreign exchange, increase in GDP and reduction in Trade Deficit.
