The readymade garment industry's competitiveness can be maintained only if gas prices are brought down to a rational level.

So says the Bangladesh Garment Buying Association (BGBA). In an official order on January 18, 2023, the gas tariff was raised for small and cottage industries, captive, small and merchant power plants. Big industries are to pay bigger gas bills, by 150 per cent. Such high gas price, says BGBA, would raise the production cost, resulting in loss of competitive edge of the readymade garment sector, and that it was because of low production cost that Bangladesh could sustain its export growth to the US and the European Union despite the fact that Covid and the war between Russia and Ukraine had severely affected the world.

So in the present economic situation of the US and the EU, it would be hard for Bangladesh to sell readymade garment products at a higher rate. Bangladesh’s export earnings during the first half of the current fiscal year grew by 15 per cent. The textile and clothing industry in the country employs about ten million people. So the BGBA has urged that the enhanced gas prices be reducedin the interest of continuity of employment and business opportunities in the country.