By Asad Cheema
ISLAMABAD: All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) on Tuesday has asked Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to announce electricity and gas rates for the textile sector.
The development follows as the tenure for the provision of electricity and gas to the textile sector on the ‘market competitive rate’ is due to expire on June 30. The facility was given by the former prime minister Imran Khan to APTMA to boost the exports of the country.
In a letter penned to PM Shehbaz Sharif, APTMA said several meetings were held with the government teams on the energy rate but no breakthrough made yet.
The textile industry is not receiving export orders as the situation about the electricity and gas rate still remains unclear, the letter read.
The premier has been urged to announce rates for electricity and gas before June 30, so that they can book orders accordingly.
Earlier, Hamid Zaman, a member of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association, asserted that industrial growth was witnessed under the previous government’s tenure after the 1960s, but rising inflation is now affecting every sector.
Hamid Zaman said: “We had to increase exports and that was because of the subsidies we were getting.
The deficit would be less when we export local goods,” he said.
