PRGMEA demands of government to increase DLTL facility by 7 percent

Pakistan Ready Made Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) Chief Coordinator Ijaz Khokhar on Thursday demanded of the government to increase the Draw Back of Local Taxes and Levies (DLTL) facility by minimum 7 percent to garments export sector for one year.
He also demanded that the condition of 10 percent increase in export for availing DLTL facility should be abolished when international export orders were cancelled or halted due to corona threat. Presently, the government is giving two percent DLTL to the garments sector.
Khokhar proposed the government to give compensation on air freight charges for exports and imports of inputs which have increased manifolds. He said air freight for European countries has gone up to 5 to 6 US dollars instead of 2-3 US dollars per kg and import freight has gone up to 7 to 9 US dollars instead of 2 to 3 US dollars per kg.
Ijaz Khokhar demanded that the government restore zero-rated regime for five zero-rated industries which includes textile, surgical, sports, leather and carpet, otherwise they will be left with no option except of lay off the labour.
While commenting on PM's recent announcement of refunding Rs 100 billion sales tax to exporters, he said it was not an incentive as it was the amount of exporters pending with the government since July, 2019.
Chief Coordinator PRGMEA Ijaz Khokhar appealed to the Prime Minister Imran Khan to talk to Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar and Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah to allow the export cargo otherwise the exporters had to bear a loss of billions of dollars.
Earlier, Khokhar said that Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce, Industry and Textile Razak Dawood had talked to the chief ministers of Punjab and Sindh regarding movement of export cargo and they had assured him that permission of movement will be granted to trucks carrying export goods.
Khokhar said that it is very unfortunate that the district administrations of both the provinces say that they have not received any written orders in this regard. In the same way, shipments of worth millions of dollars were ready for dispatching and were laying in factories of Sialkot, Faisalabad, Lahore, Gujranwala and other parts of Punjab waiting for government's policy.