LAHORE: As the Pakistan textiles’ exports have witnessed a jump of 25.53 percent in the lead of knitted garments in fiscal year 2021-22 as compared to the preceding fiscal year, the PHMA has asked the government to extend the ‘regionally competitive’ tariffs of electricity as well as gas beyond June 2022, as it would not be viable for the exporters to compete the world market.
Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association (PHMA) Central Chairman Shahzad Azam Khan observed that this year too, knitwear remains number one export sector, with high export jump, crossing the level of $5 billion annually. The export of the whole textile group was $19.329 billion (up by 25.53%) out of Pakistan’s total annual exports of $31.791, also showing a surge of 25.64 percent against the exports of the last fiscal year.
He said that the textile commodities that contributed in positive trade growth included knitwear, exports of which increased from $3.815 billion in fiscal year 2020-21 to $5.120 billion in the recently concluding fiscal year of 2021-22, showing a growth of 34.23 percent.
Quoting the latest data of Bureau of Statistics, he said that the export of Knitted garments during the month of June 2022 was $474.944 million as compared to $428.278 million during May 2022 which is 10.90% against the previous month, vindication of the fact that country needs more focus on value-added textile industry not the international donors to earn foreign exchange.
“The PHMA extends congratulations to the commerce ministry and the whole nation for achieving record exports in FY22. “Greetings also to all the hosiery exporters on achieving record exports with a growth of 34.23 percent over the previous year, hoping the trend will continue with government full support to promote export culture.”
Demanding the continuation of concessionary energy tariffs for the export industry, he termed it totally imprudent and unwise decision of the government to discontinue the concessionary power tariff for the five export-oriented sectors, he said the move is disastrous, damaging the struggle of exporters to enhance exports.
PHMA Chief noted that not only tariff should be lower to the level of other regional countries, the textile sector should also get uninterrupted supply of energy to meet the orders on time,” he said. He cautioned the government that unwise move of increasing energy tariffs for the exporters may sabotage the hard efforts of the exporters to enhance exports. He asked the Prime Minister and his economic team to ensure a level-playing field by offering competitive energy tariffs and continuing the Duty Drawback of Local Taxes and Levies scheme, as committed in the new five-year textile and apparel policy. He urged the government to continue supporting the five export-oriented sectors for the sake of economic stability, employment creation and revenue generation.
PHMA Senior Vice Chairman Abdul Hameed said that Pakistan’s exports of knitwear and other knitted garments and hosiery always play the leading role in exports growth, as the industry continued to show its resilience to the coronavirus pandemic in previous years.
While demanding more attention and focus of the government on export industry instead of borrowing from the IMF to bridge the huge gap of country’s trade deficit, Abdul Hameed said that apparel sector can play leading role in earning foreign exchange and boosting exports.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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