Tanners requested the government to ensure uninterrupted power supply to their units located at the tannery industrial estate in Savar for continuing leather processing smoothly, sources said.
The Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) recently wrote a letter to the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) to take steps in this regard.
When contacted, BTA General Secretary Md. Shakawat Ullah claimed that production of the tannery estate units almost halved in the last 15/20 days. If the situation continues, the sector would face disaster, as leather raw materials are perishable.
"The government should take steps to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the leather units on priority basis. The leather goods' export target along with other targets of the sector will face a negative impact, if necessary and interrupted power supply in the estate is not provided."
The power supply to the tannery industrial estate is insufficient for the last couple of days. Leather production is being severely hampered due to lack of enough generator backup in most of the units, according to the letter.
Irregular power supply has already affected leather production and export of leather and leather items.
The quality of leather deteriorates due to power disruption during processing. Besides, buyers' orders cannot be met in time. For this, they are shifting orders from Bangladesh, it added.
The tannery owners feared that they would fail to pay loan instalments, and payment of workers' wages would also face uncertainty, the sources also said.
Besides, the owners would also face huge loss, if power supply is not stable in the units, they added.
Like other products, the market of leather and leather goods has become volatile due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the letter said.
So, there is no alternative to providing uninterrupted power supply to the units, and the government should take required steps as early as possible in this connection, it also mentioned.
