Wapda-fed spinning mills closing down one-by-one

08 May '10

2 min read

Owing to the high tariff deferral of Rs 4 per unit between the Wapda-fed textiles units and gas-run industrial units, the Wapda-fed textile units are slowly closing down.

Despite the federal government dealing with issues of textile industry under an individual ministry, namely the Ministry of Textile Industry, these Wapda-fed units are closing one after another.

During his last visit to Lahore city, President, Asif Ali Zardari, had urged the Federal Minister for Water and Power, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, to initiate special new tariff for the dying units. But the request fell on deaf ears as Ashraf failed to take any remedial measures.

Promises were also made by Ashraf, of resolving the power cut issue by December 2009, faced by the Wapda-fed spinning mill owners. But these turned out to be false claims made by Minister, Ashraf

Each of the Wapda feeder and gas supply feeder comprise of a spinning unit of 30,000 spindles, which make use of 60,000 units of power per day. The cost thereby, of Wapda-fed spinning mill is Rs 9 per unit as compared to Rs 4 per unit cost of gas-supplied mills.

The deferral therefore is of Rs 5 per unit, which on an average is considered as Rs 4 per unit, as the Wapda-fed spinning mills work 24x7 with no weekly closure and pays an extra amount of about Rs 240,000 as compared to the gas-supplied spinning mills. The total amount therefore sums up to Rs 7 million per month.

But problems for the Wapda-fed units don't end up here as for about six hours a day they suffer from power cuts that further burdens their operational costs. The indifference of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) against the Wapda-fed spinning units has the latter in worry.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India

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