Tent manufacturers of the country are all set to achieve the target of producing 0.5 million tents in a month for earthquake victims provided the government guarantees prompt payments.
The 'gurus' of the industry are still confused as they fear that their payments could be stuck up after making deliveries, as the government has not yet announced any policy in this regard.
"The government has asked us to provide tents in millions, but has not announced the procedure of payments," said an exporter, anticipating that exporters' payment could be stuck up for months together.
Some eight big and 125 small tent manufacturers have the capacity to manufacture and provide 15,000 tents per day for earthquake victims. They (tent manufacturers) have already manufactured and sent some 100,000 tents to the affected areas through government and different non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
The tent manufacturers have also delivered some 100,000 tents to religious and political parties, besides NGOs, which have reached the affected areas or are on the way.
"The entire government infrastructure in Muzaffarabad, even offices, hospitals, schools, post offices etc are now to be set up in tents and for this the government needs millions of tents on urgent basis," said one exporter.
Of the eight big and 125 small tent manufacturers across the country, four big ones and 100 small manufacturers are in Punjab, while other four big and 25 small manufacturers operate in Karachi.
"We were committed to fulfil the orders placed by international donor agencies like Red Cross, Unicef, Hilal-e-Ahmer and UNO and the government should allow us to send them their orders," said Khalifa Anwar, a former Chairman of PCTMEA while talking to 'Business Recorder' on Tuesday.
He said the government should have asked the donor agencies to purchase and donate such orders to Pakistan's earthquake victims, so that the reputation of Pakistani exporters could not be deteriorated.
"The exports are now banned because the government wants all produced items to be sent to the affected areas. However, any inspection team has not been deputed to check quality of tents being manufactured for the victims," Anwar said.
PCTMEA has also requested the federal government to give it exemption in income tax and details of the said transactions during October and November should not be included in the annual returns.
"Since we are working on war footing basis for providing shelter to the victims and we are providing the tents to almost cost-to-cost, the government should also cooperate and encourage us," said another exporter.
He said that the tents that would be sent to the affected region would cost around Rs 5000 of 4x3 metres single-fly. However, as the weather in the northern belt would become hostile in the coming days, people would then need double-fly tents which would cost Rs7000 a piece.
He suggested that the government should establish export houses where big investors could procure and stock at least 100,000 tents for possible future mishaps.
"There is a dire need to send some 0.3 million tents to the affected areas immediately which will cost around Rs 32.5 million," Anwar said, adding that during last fiscal year 2004-05, the country's tent exports stood at Rs 6 billion.
He ruled out the possibility that tent exports from Pakistan would decline in the current financial year 2005-06, as they have sufficient workforce and infrastructure to meet or cross Rs 6 billion benchmark.
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