The Pakistan Bedwear Exporters Association (PBEA) has resented the dual standards applied by the government while dealing with the textile sector.
PBEA founder Chairman Shabbir Ahmed said in a statement the policies, adopted by the government, indicated that it was dominated by Zamindars and landlords, and always defended their interests even at the cost of loss to the exports.
In the new trade policy, he said, the sales tax was waived on ginned cotton, while there was no meaningful incentive for the value-added textile sector.
Again the government directed the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to help stabilise the declining cotton price and purchase cotton from the growers at the subsidised rate, he added.
The PBEA chief recalled that last year when the cotton prices reached a record level, the exporters requested the government to intervene and bring the prices to normal, but it was argued that the government could not interfere in free market mechanism.
The government, through its policy of non-interference, gave a chance to the growers and ginners to make huge profits at the cost of the value-added textile exporters, who failed to get cotton and yarn, a basic raw material, at reasonable price, he added.
Shabbir pointed out that on the one hand Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar talked about withdrawal of the subsidies by the developed world as a great success for the developing countries, and on the other, was providing subsidy to the growers through the TCP.
He said that instead of framing the export-friendly policies for the value-added sector, which constituted 60 percent of the national economy, ahead of the quota-free regime, the government was taking steps, which would increase the cost of the exports making textile products incompetitive in the quota-free competition.