Pakistan’s industrialists are aware that sustained power supply is only possible if the actual cost of production is paid, said Gohar Ejaz, Group Leader of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA). “Industrialists are devising ways to improve efficiencies to offset the increasing power tariff,” he said. APTMA was informed that the industrial tariffs would go up, adding that the government planned to add low-cost electricity in the system in the medium-term to bring tariffs down.    

“We are ready to bear the pain caused by increasing power tariffs if the government delivers on its promise to reduce them after three years,” said Ejaz. APTMA has decided to set up coal-based power plants at Gadani to meet the power needs of the textile sector. The electricity would be wheeled through the system of National Transmission and Despatch Company. 

This plan has been approved and the association is expected to supply power to its members at half the current cost within 30 months. The current power tariff has factored in the cost of inefficiencies such as power theft and line losses, he said. Traders are not happy with the increase in power tariff, he added. 

“He said small shopkeepers would be affected by this hike. Traders would give the government six months to eliminate power theft and ensure full payment of billed amount to reduce the power production cost,” he added.

Compared to harvest of about 82,000 tons of cotton in the previous season, around 43,000 tons of cotton was produced in 2012-13. Cotton is one of Paraguay's oldest crops, grown since the time of the Jesuit missions. The government encouraged cotton production after the crop was nearly wiped out by the War of the Triple Alliance. Cotton was especially suited to the Paraguayan climate and soils and was grown primarily by small farmers in the central region. Cotton farming experienced extremely rapid growth in the 1970s and 1980s.