Low gas pressure hampering 50pc production: NKATI
Karachi, December 1, 2020: Faisal Moiz Khan, President North Karachi Association of Trade & Industry (NKATI), while protesting against the promise of Sui Southern Gas (SSGC) and non-supply of gas to industries, asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to take notice and to issue directives for supplying gas with the required pressure to industries of North Karachi.
In a statement, NKATI president said that due to zero gas pressure in the industries of North Karachi, 50pc production activities have come to a standstill, due to which timely execution of export orders is becoming difficult while there are dangers of cancellation of export orders.
“It was assured that if the industrialists would take gas at an additional tariff Rs.930 MMBTU instead of the old tariff, the industries would be supplied with full-pressure by entering the RLNG system. But as promised, SSGC is not supplying gas to industries at full pressure”, he pointed out.
He further said that the industrialists were in favour of buying expensive gas till February but unfortunately Sui Southern Gas did not fulfil its promise. However, the process of collecting money from the industrialists in the name of expensive tariffs is going on responsibly.
“Additional tariff based gas bills are being sent to the industries of North Karachi. This means that SSGC is only making money by raising gas bills instead of providing services”, he criticized.
NKATI president pointed out the non-availability of gas had severely affected production activities in the textile & allied industries and there were fears that export orders could be cancelled if export shipments were not dispatched on time. This will result in huge financial losses to exporters who are already struggling to survive in the face of the severe economic crisis caused by the Corona epidemic.
Faisal Moiz appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan to fulfil the promises made in various meetings with the industrialists and play his role in continuing production activities and issue directives to the SSGC for supplying gas with the required pressure to industries of North Karachi so that timely fulfilment of export orders can be made possible.
