The Senate Standing Committee on Finance Economics and Statistics has called representatives of the All Pakistan Textile Association (Apta), for a meeting to discuss the issues of the textiles banking.
The members of the trade body, who are meeting on June 1, 2007 (today), under the chairmanship of Adil Mehmood for giving a presentation and briefing to the members regarding textiles issues, include Sheikh Tanveer Aziz, Dr Abaid-ur-Rehman, Naseer A. Sheikh, Mian Habibullah, Nasir Mushtaq Vohra, Imran Dawood, Khalid Rafi, and Khwaja Muhamad Yousaf.
Over 66 percent export earnings coming from textile sector and hence we cannot afford to ignore this vital sector of our economy. The All Pakistan Textile Association (Apta) is presenting the following recommendations for the forthcoming budget:
(i) Mark-up rates for spinning should be 7.5 percent at the maximum which would bring it in line with our competitors;
(ii) Moratorium in repayments to financial institutions for two years to settle down thus preventing spiraling defaults;
(iii) Utility tariffs should be brought down by at least 20 percent across the board through removal of cross subsidies;
(iv) There is 6.5 percent duty on import of polyester which should be returned to industry in the form of duty drawback;
(v) Open free import of all forms of raw cotton by land routes without discrimination of Indian short and medium staple;
(vi) A one-year limited period 6 percent R&D support to spinning industry for local and export to compensate for past distortions;
(vii) All taxes (federal and provincial) to be zero-rated for this industry whose production is 85 percent exported in one form or another, and
(viii) Removal of criminal provisions from the banking recovery laws should be done at the earliest besides, providing a bankruptcy law.