All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Central Chairman Kamran Arshad has said that due to expensive electricity, 150 mills have already shut down. How can we continue business? Therefore, we are handing over the keys of the industries to the government.
Addressing a press conference at APTMA head office along with other officials, Kamran Arshad said that the government should immediately declare an economic emergency and provide employment to the people instead of distributing cars to the bureaucracy and building roads.
He stated that the textile industry is heading towards decline; in December, overall exports decreased by 19.55%, while textile exports fell by 8%, and 150 mills have closed.
Kamran Arshad remarked that they are about to hand over the keys of the industries to the government, saying it can run them itself. On this occasion, APTMA North Zone Chairman Asad Shafiq said that SIFC’s National Coordinator has also acknowledged that the Rs 350 billion cross-subsidy should be withdrawn. He added that if the wheel of the economy stops, building underpasses won’t achieve anything; the burden of others’ electricity theft should not be placed on industries, and all calculations by the Power Ministry are wrong.
APTMA leaders further stated that the industry should be made a national priority, otherwise exports will decline further in the next 6 months. We should have benefited from the US-China trade war, but that didn’t happen.
