Withdraw decision to increase gas price: BTMA

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FE Report
The country's textile mill owners Tuesday urged the government to withdraw its decision to raise the price of gas used in generating captive power as erratic electricity supply is seriously hampering the overall production.
The state-owned Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) recently increased the price of gas used for producing electricity by 12.39 per cent, which sparked criticisms from the owners of gas-fired generators.
Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) said that the price has been increased at a time when the country's industrial units were using their own power produced from gas generators as supply of electricity was being frequently disrupted.
"Spinning, weaving and dyeing mills in and around Dhaka city have been operating for only 12 hours a day for the last couple of months, for which the factory owners were incurring production losses worth over Tk 80 million a day."
The price hike will cost the factories owners an additional Tk 12.77 for every thousand cubic foot gas used, the BTMA said in a press release.
The association said the owners were facing financial problems as their factories were running at half their capacity. "As a result, they are particularly finding it difficult to purchase raw materials and pay wages and other costs to workers in time."
The BTMA said the price had been increased at a time when the spinning, weaving and dyeing mills had been going through deep crisis for the last seven-eight months in the wake of global economic slowdown.
"The government declared stimulus packages, but no effective step has been taken yet for us."