Textile Ministry is yet to introduce the "Textile Development and Promotion bill" for providing legal cover to textile imports and exports, sources in the Textile Ministry revealed. The objective of the proposed bill was to monitor the implementation of the textile policy (2009-14) and to ensure accurate statistics of production capacity, exports and total number of textile units in the country,
The proposed Textile law would have required all the textile units functioning in the country to register with Ministry of Textile Industry as only registered textile units would have been able to get incentives announced in the Textile Policy. Lack of resources has forced the Textile Ministry to cease the introduction of "Textile Development and Promotion bill," a senior official of the Ministry revealed.
"Textile Ministry is not only short of staff but also facing financial crises and it is difficult to monitor so many issues at this time," sources said, adding that work on the new bill has been stopped. Gas load management programme, withdrawal of zero rating facility and yarn issues have remained the major focus of the Ministry's attention for the last six months and it had little time for other issues including the full implementation of the textile policy.
Sources further revealed that the details of the proposed Textile bill have been discussed with the Karachi, Faisalabad and Lahore chambers of commerce while it is yet to be discussed with the Multan chamber of commerce. After consideration of the stakeholders' proposals, the bill would be sent to the Cabinet. Sources revealed that a federal board of textile industries would be constituted once the bill is passed for regular interaction between the industry and the policy makers to ensure development and promotion of the textile industry.
The ministry lacks complete information about the textile units and data of their production capacity to make appropriate plans on the implementation of new textile policy. The new legislation aims to implement the new textile policy, strengthen the structure of textile industries and to get complete data. Presently, there is no textile export and import law in the country. In the proposed textile bill rules would be laid down and growth and activity of the industry would be monitored, sources added.
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