Crisis situation: APTMA urges govt to think out of the box, take stakeholders into confidence

LAHORE: Chairman of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) North Zone Hamid Zaman has urged the government to take the stakeholders into confidence to come out of a crisis-like situation through out of box thinking.

He was talking to media during his interaction with Lahore Economic Journalists Association (LEJA) office bearers on Thursday. Senior Vice Chairman Kamran Arshad, Vice Chairman Asad Shafi and Secretary General Raza Baqir were also present on the occasion.

He said the exports were growing some 10 months back, bringing $2.75 billion per month to the country. However, the whole growth has become upside down and the government is clueless as how to come out of this situation.

He also urged the government to ban only luxury imports instead of stopping raw material imports for the industry. He said the industry has installed $5 billion machinery over the last three years, which would take textile exports to $50 billion if they become operational.

Zaman said raw material worth $58 million besides the textile machinery has been stuck up at the port and demurrage and penalties have been piled up to Rs2 billion. He warned that the industry would not be able to increase exports in case the government holds back raw materials and industrial ingredients at ports.

He apprehended that the country may head to a complete disaster in case the government failed to reset its priorities in terms of letting imports intact.

Senior Vice Chairman Kamran Arshad said the textile industry had secured $19.5 billion exports during the last fiscal year due to the production of value added products by the industry meant for exports. He said the country has produced 4.5 million bales this year against 15 million bales. The industry need to import 10 million bales.

According to him, the industry has imported cotton worth $38 million on Letter of Credit (LC) basis, which is not being released due to non-retirement of documents by the banks. He said the banks are not giving preference to exporters despite repeated assurances by the government. The industry has signed contracts for import of 17 lac bales from the US out of which 531,000 bales have been shipped till date, costing $300 million.

He said half of the industrial units have already been closed down and some 7 million workers have been laid off. The remaining industry has an inventory of raw material for 30 to 90 days.

He urged the government to let the industry import raw material, as foreign exchange can only be earned through increasing exports. The textile exports has dropped to $1.35 billion last month and January figures would be more dismal, he said and feared that the local industry would also start closing down ahead. On the other hand, he said, the competitors of Pakistan textile industry are securing fresh orders from around the world.

He said the industry cannot achieve last year export target of $19.5 billion unless it is provided with raw material.

Vice Chairman Asad Shafi spoke about the impact of energy conservation plan of the government on the retail outlets of the industry. He proposed that the government should reach out a mutually agreeable reduction in timing in consultation with retail sector and allow it to remain operational until 10:00am without restrictions to avoid layoffs and keeping its ability to pay taxes intact.

Sudheer Ch, President LEJA, thanked the APTMA leadership for apprising the Association members on the prevailing state of textile industry in Pakistan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023