Muhammad Yasin Siddik, Chairman, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association – Sindh Baluchistan Region strongly criticizes announcement of increase in electricity prices up to 70 percent by the Government and urged to withdraw the rise in electricity tariff. He said that it is understandable if the tariff is raised by about 10 percent to 15 percent but not such a drastic increase of 70 percent. APTMA Sindh-Baluchistan Region chairman said that the recent hike in electricity tariff would make textile export costlier and render Pakistani textile exports uncompetitive in the international market. Subsequently, India, China and Bangladesh would capture markets presently dominated by Pakistani exporters. He suggested the government that before making any dramatic changes in the electricity prices, the stakeholders of the industry should have been taken into confidence and engaged to work out the electricity tariff. He said that the government is not in a position to provide uninterrupted power and gas supply to the industry due to which industry is facing increase in cost as a result of less than capacity output and now such a hefty tariff increase cannot be justified.
