Chairman APTMA North Zone Kamran Arshad has welcomed the federal government’s decision of gas tariff rationalization, saying that it would help boost the textile industry exports by $600 million per month.
The APTMA North is grateful for the decision of the federal government and appreciates the sincere efforts of the Federal government, Caretaker Commerce Minister Dr. Gohar Ejaz, and Caretaker Energy Minister Mohammad Ali for reducing the tariff gap and enabling the textile industry to compete in the international marketplace.
He said it has been a longstanding demand of the textile industry to rationalize the gas tariff and reduce the disparity gap for the mills in Punjab compared with those in other provinces. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has taken a step in the right direction by introducing two gas tariffs for the mills in Punjab and Sindh provinces where the expansion drive was hit hard due to the RLNG rate difference in the two provinces respectively, he added.
“The earlier tariff gap of $4 would now reduce to $1.5 for the mills in two provinces after the government notifies the tariff.”
Already, he said, the textile exports have started showing positive signs, as the exports have grown by 5 percent from October 2023 due to the reforms including action against currency smuggling and the Afghan Transit Trade. Other allied Associations of APTMA are also grateful to the government for substantially reducing the tariff gap in the country, he stressed.
Speaking on occasion, former Chairman Rahim Nasir said the gas tariff disparity was confusing our international customers and the availability of two, instead of the earlier three, tariffs would have a positive impact in the long term.
Senior Vice Chairman Asad Shafi said the textile exports could enhance by another $300 million per month by eliminating cross-subsidy on the industry. He said the APTMA North Zone fully supports the Federal government in its initiative to rationalize the long-awaited gas tariff and hoped that the new tariff would be notified soon.
It may be noted that APTMA Sindh has protested this rationalization which will increase the Tariff of South-based mills and decrease the tariff of Punjab-based mills.
APTMA North Zone hails rationalization of gas tariff
