FBCCI calls for power rationing

Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) President Md Jashim Uddin on Wednesday called for power rationing to keep production uninterrupted.

He made the call in the wake of frequent load-shedding disrupting productions in factories.

The FBCCI President was speaking at the third meeting of the Standing Committee on Power, Energy and Utilities at FBCCI on Wednesday afternoon.

Jashim also called for a short, medium and long-term roadmap to ensuring energy security.

The apex trade body’s Vice-President M A Momen said Bangladesh is now more developed in the energy sector than before. He called upon all to work together to deal with the power crisis.

Calling for reconsideration of the agreements in the energy sector in the context of global scenarios, Director-In-Charge of the Committee Abul Kasem Khan stressed the need for coal-fired power generation.

Chairman of the Committee and Managing Director of Energypac Power Generation Ltd. Humayun Rashid said the energy sector would create huge employment in future and hence the sector needed more concentration from the policymakers.

FBCCI directors Bijoy Kumar Kejriwal and Md Naser also spoke at the meeting. Directors Hafez Harun, Amzad Hussain, Committee Co-chairmen Salauddin Yousuf, Mahfuzul Hoque Shah and members of the committee were also present at the meeting.

With a longstanding crisis in gas supply to Bangladesh’s manufacturing sector, business insiders said the on-going electricity crisis had put the entrepreneurs in hot water. They also said production at almost all manufacturing sectors – apparel, textile, ceramics, and food production -dropped by up to 50 per cent in different regions, particularly in Gazipur, Narayanganj and Mymensingh.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday called upon the countrymen to stop illuminating social programmes, community centres, shopping malls, shops, offices and houses across the country to save power, according to BSS report.

Her appeal to stop lighting to save power came in view of the increasing price of fuel necessary to generate power due to the Russia-Ukraine war and the sanctions imposed on Russia by the USA and Europe.