Textile industry is mum over the latest monetary policy statement of the State Bank of Pakistan, shying away from giving critical media statements. "Nothing is new," said one staunch supporter of single-digit mark-up, saying textile industry was under pressure with no exit plan on part of government amid unprecedented energy crisis, particularly for the Punjab industry.
This correspondent tried to contact textile industry's leaders without any success. All calls remained unattended with no call back. Everyone is avoiding commenting on the central bank's latest monetary policy BP. One former office bearer, requesting anonymity, said that the monetary policy had remained static over the previous three quarters,
Expressing pessimism about the debt-ridden, energy-hungry textile industry, he said: "The industry has reached to a dead-end with two way passage. But we have no idea as where to take turn, right or left, to save ourselves from bankruptcy and total disaster." He said: "Everyone is badly stuck up and without any clue on how to come out of a crisis-like situation. Most of (textile industry's) units are on verge of closure."
According to industry circles, the industry was not responding to bank notices and "banks also know that it is not easy for us to meet payment schedules". Banks, however, were adamant, saying that textile millers were offering them to sell closed capacities for the recovery of loans. Non-performing loans, banks said, were swelling up, especially in Punjab.
Textile mill owners still remained unhappy with the government inaction, saying that it had done nothing to implement its decisions and pledges it had made during the energy conference. Textile millers' indifferent attitude towards the central bank and its policies was enough to suggest that the SBP had failed to meet the industry's demand.
Office-bearers of APTMA have been advocating detaching domestic bank interest rate from the inflation rate. They pointed out that it was the government, and not the private sector, which was actually benefiting from bank loans, ultimately adding to runaway inflation.
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