Daily Times

KARACHI: The marble industry in Pakistan is facing acute power load shedding and frequent power breakdowns, adding further agony to the traders.

The marble sector is an important part of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of Pakistan while marble industries operating in Karachi remained the biggest contributors in this sector. As per figures, the industrial units of Karachi, which solely have to rely on K-Electric for power, contributed 90 percent of total marble exports of the country. The current situation of electric supply was extremely deplorable and has resulted in production breakdowns and delays/cancellations of export orders. This situation has put the industry into jeopardy while salvaging this situation would be an uphill task, considering the current economic scenario of the country.

Member of the All Pakistan Marble Mining Processing Industry and Exporters Association (APMMPIEA) said that they have taken up the matter with K-Electric officials and held scores of meetings with them but nothing has been achieved as yet to resolve the electric supply issue.

APMMPIEA Chairman Sanaullah Khan said the international ceramic feeder, initiated in December 2015, should be separated into industries and residence supply. “K-electric asked the industrial units to make a collective payment of Rs 2.77 million. These payments was made in March 2016 in anticipation that K-electric would carry out required works immediately and resolve problems on priority basis. Sadly, as per today, the whole industry is still standing at the same junction with no improvement whatsoever,” he added. Factories getting their electricity through low-tension wires were in unimaginable conditions, as they were using bamboos to support the low hanging wires, he said. “It is a very dangerous situation as people could be electrocuted besides causing wire snapping after short circuit,” Khan added.

He said several pole-mounting transformers are overloaded mainly due to hook connections including several industrial hooks. “Industrial hooks were running with cooperation of K-Electric staff,” he alleged.

Khan called for implementation of Sales Tax SRO 488 to remove all illegal, immoral and unjustified electricity connections. He also raised the issue of poor performance of complaint response centres, as only one vehicle has been designated to entertain complaints covering a large area.

“Over-billing was also a serious issue. Many members have noticed this issue and we have duly raised this with K-Electric. Unfortunately, this issue could also not find any interest with the K-Electric people,” he added.

The association appealed the Sindh chief minister, industry minister and other high ups to take serious notice of this situation.

The overall marble sector exports stood at $53.43 million from July 2015 to June 2016, registering a decline of around $16.55 million as compared to the same period last year that stood at $69.98 million. Frequent load shedding and power outages were proving the biggest hurdle in smooth performance of the marble industry.

K-Electric spokesperson Danish Ahmed said the power entity has assured the industries of frequent supply of power in the coming month. “We are trying to lay down copper lines instead of silver wires, but some financial and implementation hurdles are hampering our work.”

However, he said the power entity was fully aware of the situation and assimilates the problem of marble sector. The amount we have received from the industry would be fully utilized in the best way to cop with the power situation and the matter of low-tension lines would also be taken into consideration, he added.

KE Managing Director Tayyab Tareen was not available for giving his comments on the matter. The industry kept sending him letters on this issue while it was disclosed that he referred the details of grievances of industrial units to the concerned K-Electric departments for action.