KARACHI: Chairman Standing committee on imports, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) and former chairman Pakistan Yarn Merchants Association (PYMA), Khawar Noorani has rejected 2.5 percent regulatory duty (RD) on polyester filament yarn, which is the basic raw material of the textile industry and appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan for a review the decision so that to save the textile industry & SMEs sector from destruction.

He said the textile industry is already facing crisis due to Covid-19. In this situation, the proposed 2.5 percent RD is not a wise move as 64 percent of the economy is dependent on the textile industry so if regulatory duty is imposed on polyester filament yarn, textiles industry will be destroyed.

Khawar Noorani feared that the imposition of more RD on PFY would lead to the import of fabrics & clothes directly from China, which will destroy the local industry.

He pointed out that the market shares of fabrics made by polyester are increasing rapidly all over the world as this yarn can be used to make different types of fabrics cheaper than cotton but unfortunately Pakistan is not able to meet its demand and local producers unable to fulfil raw material demands and can barely meet the demand of 20 to 25 pc of polyester filament yarn while the rest is met by imports.

"In the best interest of the national economy, don't impose RD on PFY, which will lead to massive investment in Pakistan and extensive employment opportunities will be created while Pakistan will also be self-sufficient in making polyester filament yarn which will have the advantage that we will be able to export our yarn in many countries and fabrics export also", he opined. Khawar Noorani further said the duty on POY should be abolished so that employment would increase with the establishment of industries in Pakistan and instead of importing yarns we would manufacture our own yarns so that our share in yarns could be significantly increased Share may be higher. He requested Prime Minister Imran Khan to reconsider the decision to impose RD on PFY and also abolish duty on POY.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020