The Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), especially the steel and re-rolling mill owners, fear a substantial loss of production in the industrial units due to recent government decision of rationing electricity supply for a significant number of hours in a day to save energy. "The existing nagging power disruption in the steel and re-rolling mills has been taking a heavy toll on the production. The government's recent decision for re-distribution of power will add new problems to the production process of the items," said general secretary of the Bangladesh Steel Mills Owners Association (BSMOA) SK Masadul Alam Masud. At present, the daily production capacity in the steel and re-rolling mills is 5000 tonnes while the electricity systems losses are six hours and gas system losses are three hours a day, he said. If the fresh government decision comes into force the production will be hampered significantly, he said. The production of such items in the country could be 10,000 tonnes per day in 100 steel mills and 350 re-rolling mills if uninterrupted power supplies are ensured. When asked, president of the Bangladesh Salt Mills Owners Association (BSMOA) Paritosh Kanti Saha said disruption of power supply from the salt mills for a certain period of time will reduce the production drastically. "The daily production of salt in the country is 35,000 sacks in 280 such factories across the country," he said adding that power disruption will result in production shortfall of the item. The monthly consumption of the salt in the country is 100,000 tonnes and the annual shortfall of the item is 300,000 tonnes. The shortfall is covered by import from abroad and through smuggling from the neighbouring countries, he added. The small salt producing mill owners will face problems if the government's decision comes into force, he observed. The round-the-clock producing mills like paper mills, fertiliser mills and other small and medium enterprises will face problems due to such decision, said president of the Furnace Oil Consumers Association (FOCA) Hasan Salam while talking to the FE. Meanwhile, the government Sunday planned to cut at least 50 per cent of gas supplies to KAFCO, Jamuna and Ghorashal fertiliser factories during the peak hours (5.0pm to 11pm). The government has decided to go ahead with its previous decision to keep the Tongi 80 megawatt (mw) power plant and Palash urea fertiliser factory shut down until December next. According to the decision, the Power Ministry will cut electricity supplies to re-rolling and still mills as well as brick, salt and lime factories from 5.0pm to 11 pm. The government is planning to ration gas to bulk consumers, particularly the fertiliser and power plants, from Saturday to cope with the short supplies in the wake of a rise in its demand. Observing the public agitation across the country, a high-powered committee on energy suggested that the government should increase power production by at least 1000mw and for this reason it proposed to cut supplies to fertiliser factories, sources said. The five-member committee Sunday submitted its suggestions to the concerned ministries.
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