Manufacturers of pottery and ceramic products have lodged a robust protest against the recent hike in gas tariff which is that the basic fuel for the industry.
They said the move would render their products uncompetitive and Chinese products could capture the whole Pakistani market during this sector.
Pakistan Pottery Manufacturers Association president Chaudhary Zuman said the tariff had almost been doubled within the fresh bills received by the manufacturing units in Gujrat that shocked the local industry.
He said the Gujrat-based pottery units were actually domestic industry as some major manufacturing units had already been shut thanks to the worst conditions of doing business. “Now the new gas tariff could end enclosure of the industry as well”.
He said the PPMA had decided to stage a sit-in outside the Parliament House just in case the hike wasn’t withdrawn.
He said some local glass factories had already been closed thanks to the high cost of doing business.
Raja Waqas Ahmed, the PPMA general secretary, said such a rise in gas tariff had never been witnessed before. “The government has purchased the RLNG on hefty prices from the international market but the local industry wasn’t capable of bearing such a pressure.”
He said that the manufacturers were compelled to extend the rates of their products thanks to hiking in gas prices but the local industry won’t survive before the Chinese products in terms of costs. Gujrat houses a minimum of 150 pottery manufacturing units where around 25,000 workers are employed and many people also are affiliated with the trade of pottery products across the country.
The manufacturers have called upon Prime Minister Imran Khan to require notice of the matter and order withdrawal of the hike in gas tariff.
