Importers of raw cotton: KCA concerned over delay in issuance of ‘necessary’ permits

KARACHI: Khawaja M Zubair, Chairman, the Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) has expressed his deep concern over the undesirable delay/refusal into issuance of necessary permits to the importers of raw cotton by the Department of Plant Protection, Government of Pakistan on the misinterpretation of law, despite fulfilling all the requirements including Phyto-Sanitary Certificate of the country of origin and fumigation.

The permits issued by the Department of Plant Protection are required for clearance of consignments of imported raw cotton from the port. Due to delay/ refusal into issue necessary permits by the Department of Plant Protection, not only the heavy demurrage and detention on the consignments of imported raw cotton are involved on daily basis but also the local export oriented textile industry are facing problems and difficulties to meet their requirement of raw material to fulfill their contractual obligations of exports of value added textile products with their foreign buyers in timely manner.

Khawaja M Zubair, Chairman, the KCA said that due to acute shortage of raw cotton in the country owing to failure of local cotton crop since last 04-05 years, the local textile industry is compelled to import raw cotton from abroad to meet it’s rising requirement of raw material to keep their textile mills in operation and timely fulfil their contractual obligations of exports of value added textile products with their foreign buyers. In such a situation, the Department of Plant Protection is going against the policy of the Government to boost exports of the country to earn much needed foreign exchange for the country by delaying/refusing to issue necessary permits to the importers of raw cotton, resulting in considerable delay in clearance of consignments of imported raw cotton from the port.

He also said that due to misinterpretation of law by the Department of Plant Protection, foreign shippers of raw cotton including shipper from Singapore, who is the second largest shipper of raw cotton in the world and having 30% share of the Government of Singapore, is reluctant to ship raw cotton to Pakistan.

Khawaja M Zubair, Chairman, the KCA urges upon the Government of Pakistan/ Ministry of National Food Security and Research to look into the matter immediately, in the best interest of the cotton economy and play its due role in addressing this serious issue concerning to the local exports oriented textile industry, otherwise, our regional competitors would take advantage of this situation by capturing our foreign buyers of valued added products of textiles, resulting in not only the exports of Pakistan would be badly affected but also incur heavy losses of foreign exchange for the country.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022