The president, Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), Sheikh Abdul Waheed Sandal, has said the modification in refinancing limits and resource sharing arrangements of Export Finance Scheme would create serious problems for the exporters of the country.
Talking to media persons on Saturday here, he said this practice would unnecessary increase the rate of interests. Taking exception to increasing in discount rates, the SCCI chief said this would increase the mark-up rates and the industry would not be able to absorb this additional burden. The new monitory policy can be turned as hostile to export and would increase cost of doing business, said Waheed Sandal.
Quoting Indian and Chinese governments, he said they are giving incentives to the exporters but in Pakistan the situation is totally different as the interest rates increase posing problems. The prime reason for industrial losses is the high interest rate contributing to increasing the cost of doing business and halting investment, he viewed.
The SCCI chief pointed out that 0.5 percent increase in State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) lending rates to banks would have the adverse effects on the manufacturing sector and consequently the exporters would suffer. The manufacturing sector, he said, is already concerned over the highest mark-up rates which would further increase owing to the increase in SBP lending rates.
The SCCI chief stressed that the export sector should be given special incentives and concessions for achieving the export target set by the government for which the SBP should review its policy and take radical steps for providing necessary loans to the export sector at reduced mark-up.
Waheed Sandal underscored the need for research and development support to all industries concerned to export from Pakistan especially Sialkot because the city is the only export-oriented city of Pakistan, which is exporting 100 percent value-added products to the globe. The SBP announcement at this juncture had further created problems for the exporters of Sialkot and it is high time that the central bank should reconsider its policy, the SCCI chief added.
Comments
Comments are closed.