APTMA rejects monetary policy

RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: Acting Chairman All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Seth Muhammad Akber has rejected monetary policy and said that maintaining mark up at 12 percent would add more to the Non Performing Loans (NPLs) and unemployment in the private sector.

He said the textile industry was expecting a reduction in interest rate to single digit, as the industry was accruing heavy losses on present levels amidst unprecedented energy crisis in the country. Seth Akber also criticised the SBP approach on curbing inflation through high mark up, as major borrower of the banks was the government and not the private sector. The government was borrowing heavily at the cost of the growth of private sector, which was losing viability fast due to high financial cost, he added.

Acting Chairman APTMA said absence of surplus liquidity in the market was prime reason behind lack of investment in the industry. The population, on the other hand, was multiplying fast, which means high rate of unemployment in the absence of expansion plans of industry due to high interest rate.