Hosiery and Knitwear exporters have criticised the next fiscal budget and demanded special relief for textile industry. Large number of Hosiery and Knitwear exporters and members of Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association (PHMA) assembled at the Central office at PHMA House on Thursday and chanted slogans against the Budget 2008-09, saying "not a single penny has been allocated for the ailing textile sector to boost dwindling exports".
They said that in case the six percent R&D support to the Value Added Apparel Sector is discontinued it will be a death knell for this ailing Value Added Textile Sector. They said that as they were battling for their survival and struggling hard to retain some of their foreign buyers and once established markets but if the most essentially required R&D Support was discontinued, all their efforts would go in vain and they will loss forever their foreign buyers and markets which will be taken over by neighbouring and other competing countries.
They said that without R&D Support they will be compelled to close down their units and it will be forever and final good bye to exports of the Value Added Export Sector and the nation's, export earnings.
Jawed Bilwani, Chairman Southern Zone PUMA stated that the news reports were based on the contents in the Finance Bill Page No 15 Para (6) relating to "Phasing out of subsidies". He said that Research and Development Support was not a subsidy at all and assured the agitating members that he would take up the matter with the Finance arid Commerce Ministry and fervently appeal to them not to discontinue the six percent R&D Support to the already dying apparel sector.
Jawed Bilwani said that in Indiane Government was offering 5 percent interest reimbursement along with several other incentives to Apparel Exporters as a result of which they had an edge over us. Any measure to discontinue the R&D Support would tantamount to destroy exports with large number of units shutting down resulting in large scale unemployment as the Value Added Apparel Sector generates largest amount of employment.-PR