LAHORE, April 7: President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday accepted All Pakistan Textile Mills Association’s demands and directed the authorities to exempt the industrial feeders from power loadshedding and provide gas to the Punjab industry five days a week.

At a meeting with an Aptma delegation here on Saturday, he said in Punjab, especially in Lahore, the feeders providing electricity to industrial units should be immediately exempted from loadshedding. He said gas supply to the industry should be increased from four days to five days a week.

The president promised to consider other demands and suggestions of industrialists that included restructuring of the outstanding loans and provision of new loans at half the existing markup.

The delegation led by Mohsin Aziz, Ahsan Bashir, Seth Muhammad Akbar and Gohar Ejaz told President Zardari that there was 31.5 per cent default of the total Rs500 billion outstanding industrial loan because of the energy crisis and high interest rate.

They demanded that outstanding loans should be restructured at 6 per cent markup to revive the sector and future loan facility, whether for a short-term or long-term, should be provided at 6 per cent markup.

They suggested a regulatory mechanism to check misuse of the facility through the State Bank of Pakistan, monitoring of the loan use and determining the exact limit of working capital of the applicant firm. They warned of cut in exports, rise in joblessness, closure of more units and losses to cotton growers if industry was not revived.

They said 17 million cotton bales were expected this year and there would be no buyer for this huge production if the textile sector was closed.