The textile millers today urged the government to ensure uninterrupted gas supply and not to increase its prices at a time when the garment industry is trying to recover the losses caused by the ongoing pandemic.
Majority of the spinning, weaving, dyeing and printing industries cannot run with full capacity now due to shortage of gas in the industrial units in the areas like Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Savar, Ashulia, Manikganj, Narsingdi and Chattogram, they said.
The textile millers normally suffer from gas crisis in three months of a year and they lose 25 per cent of their annual production during this period, said Mohammad Ali Khokon, president of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA).
The BTMA member mills supply $28 billion worth of raw materials a year to export-oriented garment factories and the production loss stands at nearly $1.75 billion in the three months, he said.
Khokon spoke at a press conference at Sonargaon hotel in Dhaka.
Moreover, the loss of the mills which produce goods for the local market stands at $2 billon during the period, he said.