PHMA lauds government for releasing ST refunds

The Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association has welcomed the release of sales tax refunds of Rs32.20 billion and appreciated the Ministry of Commerce for releasing another Rs17.6 billion under DLDL, saying the initiatives will act as a driving force for a sizeable growth in exports.

PHMA vice chairman Shafiq Butt said, "Export industry is grateful to the PM and his entire team on payment of Rs30 billion for bonds issued against long outstanding sales tax refunds. Moreover, release of Rs2.2 billion against RPOs generated between Sept 6 and Oct 31. But this is a partial payment, as a large number of our members are still waiting for their refunds payment."

He said that the country has achieved current account surplus and now it needs a policy that makes country become a trade surplus through industrialization and exports. "We are confident that the same spirit will be followed and remaining hurdles in export growth will also be removed."

He said that the PHMA appreciates the government on great progress towards a sustainable future, including current account surplus from an annual deficit of $20 billion, Moody's outlook from negative to stable and KSE Index crossing 40,000 level.

Shafiq Butt also calls for removing bottlenecks from the new refund payment system of the FBR. He asked the PM to get his directives implemented fully and in their true spirit, as the exporters, who have not received the payment yet, are facing a severe liquidity crunch.

He said that increase in exports of the country is a very important objective as far as improvement of economy is concerned. He observed that it should be the utmost priority of the government to facilitate exporters in every possible way.

He said that exporters are unable to procure and purchase raw materials and other accessories for fulfilling their future export orders and this will ultimately collapse the entire export trade, he added.

He added that record inflation has hit the purchasing power of the common man due to which business activities have reduced significantly. He urged the government to reduce prices of fuel, electricity as well as the gas, besides reducing key policy interest rate to the single digit to facilitate the exporters. He said that the high cost of doing business has not only ousted Pakistani products from the international marketplace but is also jacking up the graph of unemployment. He warned that the economy can further weaken if the current financial policies are not reviewed immediately.

He demanded the FBR to release all refund claims of the export sector at the earliest, including deferred claims, customs duty drawback, drawback of local taxes & levies.