President Site Association of Industry (SAI) and Chief of Value-added Textile Forum Muhammad Jawed Bilwani has urged the government to ensure uninterrupted supply of water, gas and electricity to industries and reduce tariffs to reap full benefits of the GSP Plus facility given by the European Union (EU). He said that Pakistan can not get full benefit of generalized scheme of preferences (GSP) plus status extended by the European Union unless it reduce high cost of doing business, overcome severe energy crisis, water shortage and controlled law and order situation.
Talking to newsman at PHMA Iftar dinner, he said that in present conditions the local industry was not fully prepared to take advantage of duty-free access to the EU market under GSP plus status mainly high cost of manufacturing and non-availability of basic ingredient to run the units at optimum level.
An increase in value-added exports largely depends on adequate supplies of gas, electricity and water to the sector, which has been hit by an extreme shortage of natural gas. He said that the crippling energy shortage continues to cause huge production losses to the entire textile chain, from spinning to finished goods. Bilwani further said that Pakistan is not in a position to compete with its competitors in international market as value-added products of India are 10 percent cheaper, Bangladesh 15 percept and Sri Lanka 12 percent as compared to value-added products of Pakistan. He said that in Pakistan textile exports have registered 12 percent decline whereas textile exports of its competitors increased by 5 to 8 percent.