Governor Punjab Sardar Latif Ahmad Khosa assured to help textile exporters in reduction of cost of production of exportable goods ensuring regular supply of gas and electricity, concessionary export finance and clearance of drawback and sales tax arrears.
This assurance was given during a meeting with Chairman Rana Arif Tauseef and other members of Pakistan Textile Exporters Association here on Friday. Addressing the meeting Governor Sardar Latif Khosa appreciated the role of textile exporters in the development and consolidation of the country and said that they have done a good job to put the country on the path of economic prosperity.
He said that Government would extend full support to the textile exporters and it would take the business community as a partner in the national development as both would work together for the betterment of the economy. He said that this Government is business friendly and totally believes in industrial growth to strengthen the national economy.
Sardar Latif said that Pakistan economic growth faces serious setback because of inflation, security threat, instability in the state and energy crisis. Shortages of energy and power do not let the boom entered into the industrial sector.
He recalled that Shaheed Benazir Bhutto had had a vision for the increase of energy in the country and that's why, in his view, a number of IPPs have come forward to invest in energy production. He said that severe shortage of gas in the country calls for extraordinary measures on war footing and in this regard Iran-Pakistan and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline projects are being pursued to increase supply.
He hoped that the environment for business would improve but warned not to expect a dramatic change. "We are in a stabilisation mode that necessitates fiscal adjustments. I, however, hope that the government with the help of productive sectors will be able to come out of the current difficult patch.
Earlier Rana Arif Tauseef, Chairman Pakistan Textile Exporters Association, welcomed the Governor. In his welcome address, he explained in detail the problems and hurdles faced by textile exports and industry.
Pinpointing the main problems, he said that gas and electricity shortage have shed negative impact on the entire industrial sector that is already passing through very challenging times. Not only the textile exports and productions have nose-dived but the graph of unemployment has gone up also. To regulate the industrial process in the country, he demanded to inject LPG in gas system. Drawback of local taxes was introduced in the textile policy and produced good results and exports of value-added textile goods increased during last two years, he said. This facility was ended in June this year; he added and demanded its extension. Billions of rupees of value-added textile exporters were stuck up in sales tax, drawback, customs' rebate and excise duty refund regimes creating liquidity crunch and hampering the export growth and turnover, he said. He hoped that the Governor would intervene and help them arrange funds for the payments of stuck up amounts.
PTEA Chairman demanded reduction in rate of bank markup, smooth flow of electricity and gas, reduction in energy cost, reduction in cost of production, market access to developed countries and level playing field. He pleaded for export-friendly policies. Later Mushtaq Ali Cheema, former chairman PTEA, presented souvenir of PTEA to the Governor.