Govt urged to bail out textile industry from crisis

RECORDER REPORT

FAISALABAD: Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) demanded of the Government to bail out textile industry and exports from current crisis by removing hurdles and provision of necessary incentives to expand economy, create new jobs and to generate forex for the country, said Asghar Ali Chairman and Muhammad Asif, Vice Chairman of the Association in a joint statement here on Tuesday.

Pin pointing the various bottlenecks plaguing textile exports, they said that most ticklish issue is rising cost of production as prices of raw materials and inputs like gas, electricity and petroleum products have sky rocketed making our products uncompetitive in international market.

With abnormal high jump in raw material prices, the cost of value-added textile products enhanced enormously and the export of finished goods became unviable in the face of tough competition in the international market and the exporters are finding it difficult to continue their production as well as to meet their commitments made with foreign buyers, they said.

Appropriate measures should be taken to deal with the emerging challenges, they demanded.

They expressed grave concern over stuck up amounts of exporters on account of refunds of Sales tax, custom rebate and DLTL regime creating liquidity crunch. Pakistani exports were already under pressure due to prevailing economic, financial, industrial crisis in the country as well as persistent law-and-order situation which are badly affecting the industrial and trade activities, the productivity output and workers employment, they said.

Textile export sector is a major forex earning sector to the tune of twelve billion dollar plus per year. Textile exports of the country are crumbling and the industry and business are squeezing due to non-availability of funds, they claimed.

PTEA leaders are of the view that gas is imperative to run the wheels of industry. But without its availability, no one could even think to run industry. They said that textile sector has been facing depression and stagnancy since last year continuously due to energy crisis.

Twin menace of price hike and load shedding is ruining the industrial sector and hampering the textile industry, they said.

All over the world and also in our regional countries, the Governments help their industries by providing them cheaper inputs enabling them not only to keep the wheel of industry running but also to successfully compete in international markets. However, in Pakistan the industry is not only burdened with high cost of energy but also disrupted supplies resulting in loss of productivity.

Energy crisis should be addressed immediately, they demanded. Challenges like energy crisis, high interest rate, high power tariffs, frequent load shedding of gas and law-and-order situation are holding this mainstay of national economy back from growing up to full potential.

PTEA leaders urged the Government to take cognisance of this serious matter by allocation of funds for payment of Customs Rebate, Sales Tax and DLTL and immediate addressing the emerging gas crisis to enable the textile exporters to retain their hard won export markets at this time of tough competition in international markets.