The Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Prgmea) has urged the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) to reduce the fee for exporters' participation in international fairs and charge the same on their return from the exhibitions.
Prgmea Central Chairman Bilal Mulla said in a statement on Wednesday the EPB was charging exorbitant fee from the participants and did not give any discount to exporters who failed to do any business in fairs.
In some cases, goods dispatched to the fair venue, did not reach in time and the exhibitors failed to stage a display in the fair and came back empty handed without any export orders, he said and suggested that in such cases the participation fee should be refunded.
He pointed out that frequent changes in the visit schedule of exporters' delegations caused a bad impression of the country among the importers and buyers who were upset with the frequent delays or cancellation of the visit.
He advised the EPB to strictly follow the visit schedule and announce the date after completing all visa and other formalities.
He said the condition of submission of separate E-forms for different garment shipments made under the Research and Development rebate scheme should be abolished and also the condition of producing Annexture-3 form issued by the Customs be done away with as the shipping bill contained all the details required by the State Bank of Pakistan.
The Prgmea Central Chairman lauded the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) for making the entire textile chain as zero-rated sales tax and appealed to the CBR Chairman to extend the last date for consumption of stocks by the garment exporters up to December 31. Under SRO-992, the garment exporters are required to consume their stocks by September 30, he added. He said the garment manufacturing cycle lasted for eight months whereas the SRO 992 gave only nine days to the exporters to consume their stocks.