Textile exporters hold Dar responsible for industrial sector's financial crisis

Textile exporters on Wednesday held the Federal Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar, responsible for the industrial sector's financial crisis, saying a total Rs 205.76 billion of value-added textile exporters are held up by the government. "The government still withholds Rs 13.17 billion under DLTL claims and Rs 17 billion sales tax under refund claims," Pakistan Apparel Forum's Chairman Muhammad Javed Bilwani told newsmen at a press conference held here at PHMA House. Heads of different textile associations also spoke on the occasion.
He urged the government to allocate the export development fund to the Textile Ministry so that the fund could be utilised for development of export. Pointing out that the textile sector's contribution to EDF stood at Rs 11.50 billion, he demanded of the government to immediately announce a new textile policy and the outstanding dues, amounting to Rs 205.76bn, must be included in it. He regretted that although the PML-N government had assured the textile exporters last August that their outstanding dues will be settled soon, no concrete measures have, so far, been taken in this regard.
"Imports and exports cannot take place without banking channels and needs documentations," he said, adding that the government should declare zero-rate duty for export-oriented sector. He said the government has failed to announce textile policy despite falling textile export and growth. Council of All Pakistan Textiles Association's Chairman Muhammad Zubair Motiwala deplored that textile sector's manufacturing has declined by 55 per cent owing to continuing financial crunch.
He said that the sector's production could grow by over 80pc provided stuck up funds were released immediately. He said that the country has failed to improve its textile exports despite getting the status of GSP plus and in support of his contention he claimed: "The textile export fell by six per cent last month." India, he said, had provided full support to its textile sector, giving financial incentives and discount on the import of machinery so that the country could compete with Pakistani goods in the international markets.
"India gave right-left incentives to its industry after Pakistan got the status of GSP plus," he said and demanded of the government to increase monetary support to the ailing sector. He urged the government to form a committee of its choice to make cost of business analysis among all the competing countries of Pakistan and mention the incentive-related recommendations in the textile policy.
He also demanded of the government to provide gas to manufacturing units at lower rates so that they could compete globally. At the outset, Motiwala gave a comparative analysis of Pakistan's textile output with other competing nations. Dr Mirza Ikhtiar Baig said that the proposed textile policy would yield no positive results for the ailing sector if the government did not equip it with full financial support to help undertake all the schemes.
The last textile policy had failed to find any financial support after its implementation for more than one-and-half year, he said, adding that the finance ministry should allocate funds to execute the policy on a yearly and exclusive basis. "Otherwise the textile policy will prove be an exercise in futile," he opined.
He deplored that although prime minister and commerce minister had admitted that the industry's 80 per cent problems were related to the financial backlogs, the finance minister did not take measures to release the entire withheld amount to the exporters.
Out of Rs 188 billion under the textile policy, the last government released only Rs 28 billion to execute the proposed schemes, he said, adding that the proposed projects would still need a proper supply of funds. Mehtab Chawla urged the government to come out of slumber and take notice of the economic war unleashed by India against Pakistan. He said that the textile sector could not grow in the absence of gas and finances. He warned that India would take away all global textile contracts from Pakistan if the government failed to improve the situation.