Textile producers feel uneasy as exports drop sharply

A fall in exports has left textile producers uneasy with fears of the country's plunging global share, saying that government discarded the largest sector from its priority index. A minister-less textile sector faces huge financial problems in the wake of non-payment of billion of rupees refunds. Textile producers claim that the government has withheld around Rs 250 billion of refunds, citing it as one of the reasons for their financial stress coupled with lower exports.
"Government is responsible for Textile Exports downfall amid excessive delays in refunds of billions of rupees to exporters, unbridled high cost of utilities and production and unviable business environment," Chairman, Pakistan Apparel Forum, Muhammad Jawed Bilwani told Business Recorder on Saturday.
He said that the federal textile ministry functions without a minister and blamed the government of 'delaying tactics' to hold up payment to the tune of Rs 250 billion refunds to cause financial tumult to the exporters. Citing Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, he said that the ailing textile exports suffered a fall of 2.53 percent in February 2017 on an annual basis. Similarly, with a monthly outlook, textiles exports slumped by 6.48 percent. The falling exports, he said, proved the government's claims 'wrong' of being business-friendly.
"In the textile export group the knitwear maintains the highest exports share and knitwear remained at top of exports list with exports of $1.56 billion while the readymade garments maintained second highest exports worth $1.49 billion from July 2016 to February 2017," he said.
Bilwani urged the government to provide enabling and favourable business environment if it really intends to achieve export targets. "It is crucial to provide and foremost to curtail the cost of inputs ie electricity, gas, minimum wages and water rates close to rates of regional competitors such as Bangladesh and India," he added. "It is a great irony that exporters had not received payments of billions of rupees against their DLTL Claims for the 2010-11, 2013-14 and 2014-15. Therefore, Government should release all the pending DLTL Claims on Top Priority to enable them to increase their production and meet export commitments," he added.