Nearly 200 readymade garment manufacturers in Bangladesh are facing severe shortage of gas and power supplies, leading to massive disruptions in production, the owners’ association claimed.
“As it has become difficult to get new gas and power connections, many RMG manufacturers in the country have resorted to diesel-run power generators, while power cuts have just added to our woes,” said Siddiqur Rahman, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
At a press conference saturday, he said currently a total of 197 RMG units are facing trouble.
“Of them, sixty units have sought a transfer of their existing connections, 73 applied for increasing gas pressure while 64 applied for new connections, but to no avail,” Siddiqur said in reply to a question.
Talking on the electricity status, he said though the country has installed capacity to generate 14,000 megawatts of electricity, but the current generation is 8,000MW.
Factories located in Ashulia, Savar, Gazipur, Rupganj and Narayanganj are suffering at least four hours of power cut daily, BGMEA president said.
Seeking policy support from the government, the apex trade body of the country’s clothing industry also focused on employment generation to attain the $50bn export target by 2021.
Every year, about 20 lakh people are entering the job markets and RMG sector is providing jobs for those young entrants. That is why the government should focus on the sector through policy support in the next budget to enhance capacity of the sector, said the BGMEA president.
According to the BGMEA data, RMG sector registered a 10% growth in first 10 months of the current fiscal year while it needs about 12% growth to achieve the $50 billion export target by 2021.
But in the last 22 months, the sector witnessed only 6.81% growth, which is 5.19% less than the estimated target.
To overcome the situation and meet the desired growth, the sector has to double its growth.
“So, we need support from the government.”
BGMEA has demanded re-introduction of reduced tax rate benefit for the next five years starting from the next fiscal year 2016-17.
The apparel makers enjoyed the reduced tax rate benefit since 2005, but it was cancelled in 2014-15.
“Now, we are paying corporate tax at the regular 35% rate from the Fiscal Year 2014-15.”