Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) have demanded that the Research and Development (R&D) facility should be allowed to eligible sectors across the board as it is without any link with export volume. Tahir Ishaque Bharara, Chairman PTEA talking to newsmen here Monday apprehended that the volume-based support facility would create discrimination and distortion and also would result in decrease of exports.
He strongly demanded that the government should continue the Research and Development Support Facility for the coming years as it has greatly sustained the textile exports of the country. He said that in the absence of this support facility textile exports would have crashed and the industry would have buckled down.
The PTEA Chairman demanded that the textile industry, particularly export oriented units of all textile sectors should be immediately exempted from Wapda load shedding as this factor was adversely affecting the productivity of manufacturing units and hurting the export orders and commitments with the foreign buyers. He also pleaded for uninterrupted gas and electricity supply during winter.
Chairman PTEA urged new tariff for gas and electricity for textile sector to offset the rising production cost and face competitiveness in international market. Multiple price hikes in gas and electricity over the last years have upped the manufacturing costs of exportable goods throwing Pakistani exports out of world market, he stated.
The PTEA Chairman also demanded exemption from taxes, levies and cross subsidies for textile goods by zero-rating the textile exports and enabling the Pakistani exporters to compete with their rival countries in the international market. The PTEA Chairman wowed to double the textile exports of the country in coming years if the above demands were conceded to the benefit of the exporters.