LAHORE: Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) and Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Saturday demanded exemption of textile sector from loadshedding to avail 900 million euros WTO trade waiver.
PFCCI, an apex body of chambers in the country also further demanded withdrawal of increase in prices of fuel including gas to help strengthen national economy besides saving the industrial and agricultural sectors from irreparable loss.
President FPCCI, Senator Haji Ghulam Ali, VP SAARC CCI Iftikhar Ali Malik and LCCI SVP Meher Kashif Younis in a joint statement demanded that government, in larger national interest, should accord priority to industrial and agricultural sectors especially textile sector in the wake of two year WTO waiver for competing global markets.
They demanded uninterrupted gas, power supply throughout the year to meet the economic growth and boost export targets especially textile sector besides ensuring bumper crops.
They said that survival of all countries rely on sound economy, hence in the greater national interest the government should reshape its policy of load shedding to provide a chance to industry to flourish.
Iftikhar Ali Malik said that hike in gas, power and petroleum products prices would affect the manufacturers, already disturbed by gas and power load shedding. The high tariffs had created liquidity crunch for importers of industrial raw materials, he said.
He said that keeping in view global business scenario, high mark up rate by banks should also be reduced to single digit for providing solace to the industry.
LCCI SVP Meher Kashif Younis, VP, Saeeda Nazar, executive members Aftab Ahmad Vohra and Mian Waqar Ahmad said that absence of gas and power and increased prices would burden the industrial sector which was already facing high mark up rate.
"All these factors are increasing the cost of doing business", they added.
Meher Kashif said that government in order to fully encourage the textile export with reference to WTO waiver must provide an excellent package of incentives cum concessions to compete with other countries in international markets.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.