Sohel Parvez
Dipankar Roy
Ahmed Humayun Kabir Topu
Load shedding disrupts businesses across the country. Idle silk loom workers in Rajshahi BSCIC industrial zone. PHOTOS: AZAHAR UDDIN, AHMED HUMAYUN KABIR TOPU, HABIBUR RAHMAN
Every time the electricity goes out, Abdus Salam’s lathes at a workshop in Pabna stop. Workers at Rezbin Hafiz’s small shoe factory in Dhamrai also have to stop work and wait for hours for the power to return. At Abul Kashem’s engineering unit in Keraniganj, production comes to a standstill, leaving workers battling the heat and falling behind on delivery deadlines.
All of them are small and medium-sized companies. Unlike large manufacturers and exporters, they cannot afford to run generators to keep their machines running during power outages. Therefore, frequent outages directly harm your productivity and income.
As load shedding In some areas, which now lasts around half the day, these businesses are facing serious disruptions.
“We cannot make a shoe properly due to loss of load, time is lost and production is delayed,” said Rezbin Hafiz, managing director of Peoples Footwear and Leathergoods at Dhamrai BSCIC Industrial Estate.
A mechanic repairs a generator on Sheikh Russel Road in Khulna amid rising demand for backup power. PHOTOS: AZAHAR UDDIN, AHMED HUMAYUN KABIR TOPU, HABIBUR RAHMAN
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A mechanic repairs a generator on Sheikh Russel Road in Khulna amid rising demand for backup power. PHOTOS: AZAHAR UDDIN, AHMED HUMAYUN KABIR TOPU, HABIBUR RAHMAN
He said production costs had already increased over the past three years due to rising raw material prices. “Our buyers have reduced their orders,” he told The Daily Star by phone yesterday.
In this context, repeated power outages delay production and further increase costs, Rezbin said.
Like its factory, Bangladesh has 1.20 crore micro, small and medium enterprises. They contribute more than 30 percent of the country’s gross domestic product and employ 3 million people.
From light engineering and agricultural processing to welding shops, leather goods manufacturers and neighborhood laundromats, these businesses are widely seen as the backbone of the economy.
But amid the rolling blackouts, some are spending more to produce the same amount of goods, while others are taking much longer to meet delivery deadlines. For some business owners, the situation has become so difficult that they are dipping into their savings to pay workers’ salaries.
Abdus Salam, a small businessman from Pabna, said load shedding has drastically reduced his income recently. He could earn between Tk 2,000 and Tk 3,000 on a normal working day, but load shedding has drastically reduced the amount.
An employee stands idle outside a workshop near the Pabna bus terminal. PHOTOS: AZAHAR UDDIN, AHMED HUMAYUN KABIR TOPU, HABIBUR RAHMAN
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An employee stands idle outside a workshop near the Pabna bus terminal. PHOTOS: AZAHAR UDDIN, AHMED HUMAYUN KABIR TOPU, HABIBUR RAHMAN
“I have four heavy machines, including two lathes, but I cannot use them for 3-4 hours on most working days. This is the common scenario in recent months due to excessive power outages,” said the businessman.
“I am forced to pay salaries to my workers from my savings,” he said.
“It will be difficult to sustain the business if the power outage continues like this,” added Salam, who has been in the business for the last 30 years.
The country has 29,500 MW of power generation capacity, but fuel shortages mean it can only produce about half that capacity. The nation has struggled with power shortages for decades, making load shedding common for much of the year, except in winter.
The situation has worsened in recent weeks after gas supplies fell following an accident at a floating liquefied natural gas terminal in Cox’s Bazar. As a result, gas-fired power plants have reduced their output.
On August 11, nationwide load shedding reached 3,007MW, the highest level in recent days.
“We don’t have electricity for half the day,” said Abul Kashem Titu, owner of Mafia Engineering, a workshop in Keraniganj, Dhaka.
He said they tried to change the working hours to night, but even then they could not get uninterrupted power supply. The outages now are simply delaying deliveries.
“We could deliver a packaging machine in 40 days. As the cargo loss is serious, we are struggling to finish the same work in two months,” Kashem said. “Those of us in production are really in a very bad situation.”
“We have to pay Tk 4 lakh in salaries to workers and employees. Now we pay salaries while our workers cannot work,” said the small businessman.
Small business owners face the energy crisis as economic pressures are already mounting, with persistent inflation, falling exports, weak private sector investment and factory closures adding to their difficulties.
In Khulna, the largest city in the southwest, power outages are also affecting small businesses.
Earlier this week, Bulbul Mia, owner of a small lathe workshop in the city, was found cleaning a handful of nuts and bolts. His co-worker, Tofazzal, was dipping the parts in used black motor oil to separate and clean them.
Every time the power goes out, the two turn to small maintenance jobs to keep themselves busy.
Using lathes, Bulbul mainly manufactures machinery and spare parts used in cultivators, easy bikes and shallow motor vehicles known locally as Nasimons. He typically receives eight to ten small and large orders a day. After covering all expenses, he could earn between 1,000 and 1,500 taka a day.
“But things have become so difficult that now I can barely cover my expenses,” Bulbul said.
Their monthly costs, including electricity and other expenses, are close to 20,000 taka. However, in the last 10 days he only earned around Tk 5,000.
Anwar Hossain Chowdhury, managing director of SME Foundation, said small and medium enterprises remain vulnerable due to numerous challenges.
“Load reduction is harming their production, which puts them in greater difficulties,” he said.
“If they cannot produce adequately, they will not be able to market their products or generate enough income to meet their payments, including those on loans. Therefore, there is a risk of a knock-on effect,” Anwar said.