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Textile millers yesterday urged the government to ensure an uninterrupted gas supply to keep the recovery of the apparel sector from pandemic fallout smooth.
The majority of the spinning, weaving, dyeing, finishing and printing industries in the textile sector are failing to run at full capacity due to the shortage of gas in the industrial belts of Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Savar, Ashulia, Manikganj, Narsingdi and Chattogram.
“If gas is not supplied smoothly, textile millers face output losses of as high as 25 per cent,” said Mohammad Ali Khokon, president of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), at a media briefing at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka.
Textile factories in Bangladesh face a severe gas crisis for at least three months a year.
BTMA’s member mills supply $28 billion worth of raw materials, and in those three months, the loss amounts to $1.75 billion for the export-oriented textile mills.
The loss of the mills that produce goods for the domestic market is $2 billion, according to Khokon.
The association also opposed the proposal of gas distributors to raise the price of the utility.
Khokon said if the government increased the gas prices by 103 per cent to 116 per cent, it would affect the price level of yarn and fabrics. Local garment exporters might not afford the increase of yarn and fabrics prices by 2 to 5 cents per kilogramme, he said.
Any price hike will disrupt the supply of yarn and fabrics and affect the plan to invest $2.5 billion in the textile mills in the next two years to increase the spindle capacity to 15 million, he said.
Currently, the spindle capacity stands at 13.5 million.
The BTMA chief called for a long-term energy policy for the textile sector as it is vital to supply raw materials to the garment industry, Bangladesh’s biggest export-earning sector.
“The government should fix the gas price for a longer period as any frequent price hike affects investment decision,” said Khokon.
Currently, per unit gas price at textile mills is Tk 13.85, which has been effective from November 2019.
The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry has already opposed the gas hike move.
(TDS)
