The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has demanded to keep fuel oil at the previous price for the garment factories’ own power plants. Vice President of BGMEA Shahidullah Azim made this request to Minister of State for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid along with business leaders at Vidyut Bhawan in the capital. At the same time, he demanded an uninterrupted power supply to the garment industry.
At this time, it was decided to close the industrial factories in each area in order to reduce the load shedding. It is hoped that this will save about 500 MW of electricity and improve the load shedding situation. BGMEA Director Asif Ashraf was also present in the meeting.
Acting president of BGMEA said that the global economic situation is not good. In this situation, the decision taken by the government to increase the price of fuel is justified. But alternative measures were expected for the industry in these difficult times.
He also said that on the one hand gas and electricity crisis, on the other hand due to the pressure of inflation in the main export destinations of the garment industry, the decrease in the demand of the buyers – the garment industry is under two-pronged pressure. Now with the increase in the price of fuel, the system of generating electricity with its own generator has also become expensive. Hence, it is now challenging for the industry to ship export products on time.
He requested to keep captive power plants out of the scope of fuel price hike to relieve the garment industry from additional pressure in the current context. It was decided in the meeting that the business organizations will give their own proposal to the ministry in this regard very soon.
