BTMA wants diesel at lower price to keep wheels rolling

The Bangladesh Textiles Mills Association on Monday demanded that the
government should supply diesel to industries at subsidised rate
saying that production in textile mills had dropped by 50 per cent
because of gas supply shortage. They said they were getting gas
for only 12 hours a day to run their captive power plants.
'Electricity generation by captive power plants at our mills,
especially in the Joydevpur- Kaliakoir-Tangail zone, remains suspended
everyday from 11:00am to midnight due to low gas pressure. If the
trend continues we may have to shut down our industries,' said BTMA
president Abdul Hai Sarker at a press briefing at the association
office in the city. He said that textile mills in Kachpur-
Narsingdhi zone were also facing similar problems. Sarker said the
government should take immediate steps to increase power supply to
their industries. 'As we do not get enough gas to run our generators,
the government should supply us diesel at lower prices to enable us
to run our factories.' he said. 'Gas supply shortage is forcing us
to cut production by 45 to 50 per cent. The situation has aggravated
in the last two months. If this situation continues we will face
disaster. We need to raise production to least 85 per cent of our
capacity if we want to make the business viable,' he said. He said
that the BTMA members were currently incurring a daily loss of Tk 10
crore because of drastic fall in production. 'Despite global
economic meltdown, our industries grew at 4-5 per cent in the last
fiscal year. We are lagging behind our rivals in the export market
not because of the global meltdown. Power crisis is the major reason
for the sluggishness,' he noted. Former president of the BTMA, A
Matin Chowdhury alleged that the government had been ignoring the
huge potential of the sector for long. 'The finance minister had
assured us of necessary assistance for growth of the textile sector,
but no decision has so far been made to stimulate the sector hit by
recession,' he said. Things are moving at a snail's pace, he
alleged. 'If the government makes further delay to take necessary
steps to resolve the power crisis, textile sector will definitely
collapse. Besides, the government will have to take measures to
address the issue of labour unrest.' he added.