India-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IPCCI) President and former FPCCI president S M Muneer has strongly urged the government to exempt the leather industry from daily power and gas load shedding which is currently facing huge problems in utilizing the skins and hides of sacrificial animals accumulated over Eid.
He said that during the current year Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA) had accumulated 35-40 percent of all the sacrificial animals’ hides and skin from Karachi, Lahore, Sialkot, Kasur and other parts of the country. According to some estimates, this year around 5.7 million animals were sacrificed throughout the country.
Furthermore, he stated that Pakistan is one of the biggest markets of raw hides and skins in Asia and about 30 percent of the total production is generated only on the occasion of Eid. The loss due to hiring of unprofessional butchers and lack of preservation and storage is already very high. He pointed out that Pakistani leather’s quality is considered one of the best in the world and the leather industry fetches sizeable foreign exchange for the country and also plays an important role in job creation and poverty alleviation.
However, in the current load shedding situation and due to the hot and dry climate, it is not possible for the tanning industry to handle all these hides and skins or save them for the future and to complete the foreign orders to make leather garments, bags, footwear and gloves. He stated that if the raw hides and skins are not processed at the earliest the same would go rotten and cause heavy losses of valuable foreign exchange. He added that power outage of over 6 to 8 hours per day will ruin all the raw material lying at the tanneries worth millions of dollars and leather exporters will not be able to fulfill their commitment in the international market. The exporters may have to face penalties or cancellation of orders owing to shipments’ failure.
