Site Association of Industry (SAI) Chairman Ameen Bandukda has congratulated M. Zubair Motiwala for making a comprehensive and an effective presentation on reducing the cost of doing business in textile and clothing sector, which was given to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on May 31 in Islamabad.
He said that massive investment has gone into the textile sector, which is the mainstay of Pakistan's economy. It is now imperative that proper measures by the government should be adopted to ensure the long-term survival and viability of this sector, he added.
The SAI chief has commended the prime minister for immediately taking note of the report and accepting to provide relief on bank financing for capital investments and substantial reduction in the export re-finance rates, announced during the presentation. He, however, stressed that these measures are not sufficient to boost the value-added textile, which is ailing at the moment and finding it quite difficult to compete in the global market.
Bandukda said that one of the key suggestions given in the report was to "declare textile industry as a 'priority' sector for application of a separate lower gas tariff in line with rates prevailing in Bangladesh."
Reducing gas tariff is of prime-most importance for the survival of the textile processing industry, and is the major factor contributing to increasing the cost of production continuously, he added.
The SAI chief also highlighted another suggestion given in the report of providing 5 percent Travel Relief Support (TRS) on processed fabric, garments, knitted and home textiles and made-ups.
At present, Pakistan has to compete in the global market for which frequent foreign tours are needed to get access to global market, he said, adding most of the developed countries have issued negative travel advisory for Pakistan.
Bandukda, therefore, has urged the government to accept the suggestion of introducing 5 percent of FOB value as TRS to manufacturers-cum-exporters of value-added textiles, including processed fabrics, knitting, made-ups, home textiles and garments.-PR