Anisul Islam Noor :
Entrepreneurs are concerned for delaying gas connection in their industrial units as the government formed special committee to deal with the fresh gas connections has failed to sit for a meeting during the last ten months.
Although 1,500 applications have been waiting for two years, the committee did not show any headache in this regard, they said. Meanwhile, many of the investors feared to become bankrupt.
Hundreds of industrial units have failed to go into operation due to non-availability of gas connection. Such inaction of the committee has put the potential investors in an extreme anxiety as they are repaying high rate of bank interest against the loans they took before setting up industries with state-of-the-art machinery.
According to the Federation
of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), more than 500 new plants, including 200 textile and readymade garment (RMG) units, are in trouble as they are not getting gas connections.
Earlier, the committee approved 248 industrial gas connections from five meetings since its inception in 2011. Of which, 29 connections were approved at the first sitting, 15 in the second, 26 in the third, 92 and 86 in the fourth and fifth sittings.
But the Petrobangla Chairman, who is the member-secretary of the special committee, alleged that he did not know anything about the second and third meetings where 15 and 26 industrial gas connections were approved.
Former managing director of TITAS Abdul Aziz Khan has given about 300 gas connections to different industries against old gas lines which were not in operation by the users. But he did not inform this to the committee, Petrobangla sources said.
“New connections to the bulk gas consuming industrial units are almost halted in the last one year in absence of the activities of the government authorised committee,” said Mohammad Shahjahan Khan, President of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI)
He said several hundred newly set-up industrial units that are ready to go for production are suffering due to non-availability of gas connection. As a result, they are paying high interest against bank loans sitting idle for months.
He said the owners of industrial units, including ceramic, textile and readymade garment (RMG), mostly in Dhaka, Savar, Gazipur and Sreepur are now burdened with debt following delay in operation of their factories.
Rizvi Ul Kabir, general secretary of the Bangladesh Ceramic Ware Manufacturers’ Association, said ceramic industries are mainly dependent on gas connection but many entrepreneurs are not getting connection waiting for even two years.
Jahangir Alamin, president of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) said for lack of gas connections, a large number of industrial units could not go into production.
He said more than 10 entrepreneurs in textile sector have set up their factories investing more than Tk 30 billion but failed to go into operation.
Since 2009 when an acute gas crisis prevailed in major areas of the country, new gas connections to industries remained suspended and the situation did not improve until now, he added.
Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of the Exporters’ Association of Bangladesh (EAB) said a large number of entrepreneurs, most of them in manufacturing units, have completed all the formalities after getting registered with the Board of Investment (BOI). Now they demand new gas connections, but the government could not assure us of its support in a specific term, he added.
He said for lack of gas connection, the enterprises remain idle but they have been paying bank interest regularly that is making the projects costly and inefficient.
