Captive Power Plants Closure Hitting Production, Exports And Jobs: Mian Zahid Hussain

Captive power plants closure hitting production, exports and jobs: Mian Zahid Hussain

Feeble power infrastructure cannot cater to the needs of export sector Million can lose jobs, country’s reputation is at stake

Karachi (Pakistan Point News - 25th Jan, 2020) Chairman of National Business Group of FPCCI, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday said the suspension of natural gas to captive plants will hit production, exports, investments and jobs.
The decision to shut down captive power plants will also hit revenue, tax targets and foreign exchange reserves, he said.


Mian Zahid Hussain said that the decision to link factories having captive power plants to the national grid should be reconsidered as the feeble power infrastructure is unable to provide continued electricity.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that suspension of gas supply to industries will not improve the situation in the country but it will leave three hundred thousand workers in the textile sector which other sectors will also suffer.


The supply chain supporting the export sector will also be shattered creating more problems to the industrial sector, he said.
He noted that the decision has been taken at a time when the export industry has bagged unprecedented orders and billions have been invested in capacity building and expansion which is being wasted.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that production, transmission and distribution system of the power sector is highly inefficient which is wasting twenty percent of the production resulting in circular dent amounting to almost Rs2.5 trillion.
Power outages and disruption is damaging machinery adding to repaid costs and putting timely completion of export orders at stake, he said, adding that the export sector should establish their own terminal and start importing LNG to find some relief.