All Pakistan Textiles Mills Association (Aptma) Chairman Shafqat Elahi Sheikh has appealed to the government for restoration of Duty & Tax Remission on Export (DTRE), which is in the interest of the textiles sector as well as the economy. While talking to Business Recorder here on Saturday.
He said sudden changes took place in the DTRE without consulting stakeholders and it was contrary to the tariff rationalisation programme that was formulated in consultation with stakeholders in 2005.
"The rationale behind the change was to help exporters of blended yarn but this was not the case, as the industry was suddenly burdened with 6.5 percent customs duty on exports," he added.
According to him, under the DTRE scheme, the textiles industry was successfully experiencing product and market diversification for Polyester Speciality Fibre (PSF) based textiles products for export. With the exclusion of PSF from DTRE, the industry would be unable to process export orders.
Since the inclusion of PSF in the DTRE scheme, the industry imported around 1100 to 1500 tons per month of various PSF specifications, accounting for 2.5 to 3 percent of the total production capacity of PSF. This quantity should not have caused damage to the local PSF industry.
He said cost of raw material is very high in the spinning industry and impact of the customs duty could not be absorbed by manufacturers or could be passed on to buyers in the present business environment under WTO regime.