STAR BUSINESS REPORT

Garment exporters have urged the government to arrange priority diesel supply to factories from nearby filling stations, warning that energy shortages have cut production capacity by 25-30 percent in key industrial hubs.

The demand came at a meeting between a Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) delegation and Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood in Dhaka yesterday. BGMEA president Mahmud Hasan Khan led the delegation.

Apart from the supply disruption, rising raw material costs and higher transportation expenses tied to the energy crisis have further pushed up production costs, Khan said in a statement issued after the meeting.

Particularly, in industrial areas such as Gazipur and Ashulia, production and shipment have been severely disrupted due to inadequate diesel supply for running generators during load shedding, he added.

The minister assured the BGMEA delegation that steps would be taken to address the crisis and approved the association’s proposed format for arranging urgent diesel supply from nearby filling stations.

Meanwhile, the apparel exporters also called for urgent gas connections for small and medium industries -- those with boiler capacities of 300-500 kg -- and fair gas distribution across industrial areas around Dhaka.

Furthermore, they asked for the quick installation of at least two more Floating Storage and Regasification Units (FSRUs) and a simpler approval process for Electronic Volume Corrector (EVC) meters in the industrial sector.

In a bid to lower production costs and ease the government’s subsidy burden, they sought the withdrawal of all import duties, VAT, and consumer-level taxes on imported fuel.

The exporters called on the government to ensure environmentally sustainable industrialisation, and special tariff concessions on the import of solar PV system equipment.

They proposed reducing duties on solar energy components -- including panels, inverters, DC cables, and battery storage systems -- from the current range of 28.73-61.80 percent to 1 percent.

Khan noted that while buyers’ confidence had begun recovering after recent elections, the US-Israeli war on Iran has renewed pressure on global markets.

He said Bangladesh’s garment sector was more exposed to the shocks stemming from the war than neighbouring competitors because of its deeper energy vulnerability.