BR cited Dr Ikhtiar Baig advisor to prime minister on textiles as saying that the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines has agreed to supply gas to industries for 4 days and curtail the weekly load shedding for 3 days to mitigate the woes of the industrial sector.

He had held a meeting with Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr Asim Hussain after his arrival from Abu Dubai and apprised him of the negative socio economic impact of 4 day disconnection of gas to industries in Punjab.

He said that the Minister has directed SNGPL management not to increase the gas outages from three to four days in a week so that the manufacturers and producers and importers could fulfill their commitments.

Mr Baig said that the government has decided to give second priority to industrial sector after domestic consumers, in the management of gas load shedding during winter. Gas companies supply natural gas to domestic consumers, industries, independent power producers and fertilizer factories. However, industrial sector's priority has been upgraded above the IPPs and fertilizer factories.

It may be added that the industrial sector, especially textile manufacturing units, had been agitating against SNGPL's notification about suspension of gas supply to industries from 72 hours to 96 hours earlier this month due to reduced availability of gas in winter.

Pakistan Textile Exporters' Association office bearers say that the 3 day gas load shedding had already caused 35% decline in exports orders and due to 4 days gas outages the exports would have declined to 50%. Exporters say that share of textile exports in Pakistan’s yearly exports have been shrinking due to energy crisis in the country.

(Sourced from www.brecorder.com)