Akosombo, Feb.22, GNA - Management of Akosombo Textile Limited (ATL) has appealed to the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) for regular supply of black oil to enable the factory to produce at full capacity.

Mr Kweku Asare- Omenako, Administrative Manager of ATL, said irregular supply of black oil was affecting operations of the company, adding that, they required 54,000 litres of the commodity daily to ensure normal production.

He said the company started having challenges with the supply of bla= ck oil last year, when TOR was not operating regularly.

Mr Asare-Omenako was briefing a team of the Eastern Regional Securit= y Council (RESEC), led by Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Eastern Regional Minister= , who paid a visit to the factory to see at first hand challenges facing th= em. He said this year when there was shortage of the commodity, the work= ers were asked to go on break and denied media reports that the company shut down completely. The Administrative Manager mentioned another challenge facing the company as smuggling of cheap Chinese wax prints into the country. He said the Chinese more often copied their designs and then smuggle= d their products into the country without paying duties and Valued Added Ta= x (VAT) on them. Mr Asare- Omenako appealed to Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) to take steps to burn smuggled textiles, since penalties being imposed on the smugglers were not serving as deterrent. To him the textile factories were dying because of smuggling and sai= d as far as quality was concerned, the country's textile factories were producing the best but unfortunately "our people prefer to go in for the cheap smuggled wax".

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo, replying to the concerns said a time had come to fi= ght against piracy and smuggling of cheap textiles into the country.