Premier urged to take stock of situation: 30 percent voluntary closure of mills reported: APTMA chief

The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association Chairman has claimed that his association has received the report of a 30-percent voluntary closure of textile mills across the country.
APTMA Chairman SM Tanveer, talking to a select group of journalists at the office of group leader Gohar Ejaz about early this week's emergent meeting, where member mills had decided to halt them voluntarily, complained that the government had failed to bring the un-organised power looms and sizing sectors into the tax net and burdened the textile industry with a 0.6-percent tax on each transaction plus a five-percent sales tax ... All these incidentals and punitive measures have hit the sustainability of the textile industry in Pakistan."
He told the journalists, "It is also an irony that the federal government has imposed a surcharge of Rs 3.60 per unit to mitigate the positive impact of tariff reduction by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority. The textile industry is unable to bear this burden despite operating on independent feeders with no line losses and theft and a 100-percent payment of bills."
He went on, "Regional competitors are paying less than 10 cents against the 14.50-cent electricity tariff in Pakistan. Since the government is not ready to strengthen the viability of the textile industry by reducing the incidental taxes and the electricity tariff, it is the right time to lock up factory gates once and for all. The government should immediately declare the export industry zero rated and remove all surcharges, development cess and the sales tax."
He then urged the premier to take stock of the situation and sit down with his association to resolve the issues.
Group Leader Ejaz too was critical of the situation, saying scathingly, "Textile millers in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkha are blaming the Punjab for their ironies and the textile millers in the Punjab are crying against the discrimination. The association leadership has recently averted a move by certain millers for a nation-wide strike ... The industry is bearing a burden of Rs 175 billion, that is 12 percent of the turnover, in the shape of innovative taxes, energy tariff and a hostile attitude by the federal government towards the textile industry." And warned, "Time is not far when both ready-made garments and knitwear units will also collapse."