Whereas the government has agreed in principle with the stance of export-oriented industries for rationalising the gas prices and adopting other corrective measures, its indifference towards implementation of these measures has subjected industries to untold hardship, very much to the detriment of the national economy.
All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association (Aptpma) Chairman, Muhammad Saeed Sheikh, said this while talking to newsmen, here on Wednesday. Elaborating his contention, the Aptpma chief reiterated that during a recent meeting of the sub-committee of the National Textile Strategy Committee in Faisalabad chaired by NTSC Chairman Mian Tariq Saigol, Syed Masud Alam Rizvi, Federal Secretary, Ministry of Textile Industry and representatives of the Textile Processing Industry had convinced the participants that the enhancement of gas prices by the government on the pretext of enhancement of international oil prices was fallacious and untenable.
The committee had agreed to advise the SNGPL and SSGC to reduce their tariff for export-oriented textile industry to the tune of 30 percent. But, as ill-luck would have it, implementation of this decision is nowhere in sight, which has rendered the products uncompetitive in the export market and is likely to oust the stakeholders from the international export arena during the ongoing scenario of globalisation and WTO. Among the other causative factors, which have escalated the cost of production is the present rate of import duty on the import of caustic soda in gross contravention of the universally acclaimed norms of monopoly and cartels and the prevalent rates of mark-up on textile machinery.
Concluding, he urged the government to reduce the import duty on caustic soda flakes from 25 to 10 percent and that of caustic soda liquid to a flat rate of 10 percent.
He further suggested that the rate of mark-up on textile machinery should be reduced to a maximum of 7 percent to encourage BMR. He also suggested that the levy of income tax on textile exports might be deferred for a period of five years.