Chairman Pakistan Tanners Association's (PTA) standing committee on gas and infrastructure, Usman Umer, has urged the government to exempt exporters, particularly those belonging to leather industry, from the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC). In an SOS to the government, he said that the country's leather sector exports were on the decline and a situation has been persisting where Indian competitors could further snatch Pakistan's leather and leather goods market share.
Accusing the government of pursuing anti-industry policies, he said that present government, instead of offering incentives to the ailing industry was, unnecessarily over-burdening it by levying `unjust' and `uncalled for' GIDC. Drawing government's attention towards stagnation of exports in leather sector, Usman said that leather export have declined by more than 14 per cent during the last five years from $1.22 billion in fiscal year 2007-08 to $1 billion in 2012-13, mainly due to energy crisis and gas shortages.
He said that since leather processing was continuous process industry, power breakdowns not only causes serious damage to the under process leather, but also have adverse effects on its quality. He said that India was capturing Pakistan's share of leather exports as its exports in May, 2014, picked up by 14 per cent. He said that India due to availability cheap gas, electricity, duty and taxes rebates has doubled its leather exports to over $28 billion in just few years. He said that the leather industry due to recent appreciation of Pak rupee was now finding it difficult to compete in the global market.
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