Home ›› 12 Aug 2022 ›› Front
The government has announced different weekly holidays in a staggering manner for industrial areas to save electricity and ensure uninterrupted power supply to the factories across the country amid the ongoing energy crisis.
The Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE), which operates under the Labour and Employment Ministry, unveiled the list of areas and the weekly closure days for factories in said areas through a notification on Thursday evening.
The notification also said that the move — which came into effect immediately and will continue until further notice — has been made in line with the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 in the public interest.
It has come at a time when the government has already introduced scheduled area-based hourly load-shedding every day to tackle the crisis caused by the gas shortage and low power generation.
The ministry says the closure of factories in different areas every day under the staggering programme will help save electricity, minimise consumption of both natural gas and electricity, and ensure a continuous supply.
The decision to introduce staggering holidays was reached at a meeting between the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources and different business bodies last Sunday.
That day, citing Power Division officials, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid had told reporters that the new rationing system will help save around 500-550 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
As per the notification, industries of a certain area will remain closed for a day as the weekly holiday — instead of currently applicable weekly holidays on Friday and Saturday — while factories in other areas will remain open.
Industry insiders say captive power, however, will continue operation 24/7 to provide uninterrupted power supply to the backward linkage industry.
Most of the factories around the country currently offer their workers a weekly day off on Friday. Operations continue for at least 10 hours every day on the other six days.
Shahidullah Azim, the acting president of BGMEA, recently told The Business Post that they welcome the decision to introduce staggering holidays considering the situation.
“We had executed such a schedule even a decade ago and we received positive feedback at that time,” Azim said.
However, many business leaders have said that they are afraid of facing production loss since they are already under heavy pressure due to the recent gas and oil price hikes, which have come after the power and gas supply shortage.
They have urged the government to provide an uninterrupted electricity supply and keep the captive power plants outside the purview of tariff hikes.
Under an ongoing austerity measure, all the diesel-fired power plants are now shut and scheduled load-shedding is being implemented officially from July 19 to reduce diesel imports and save foreign currency.
Although area-based daily load-shedding was scheduled for one hour, it allegedly continues for up to three hours at a time in some city areas across the country.
Loadshedding in rural and remote areas, however, stretches for more hours, according to consumers.
Markets and shopping malls can now stay open until 8pm. The government also prohibited illumination in different social gatherings in community centres, shopping malls, shops, offices and houses since July 7.
