The Minister for Textile Industry, Muhammad Farooq Saeed, on Friday informed National Assembly that the Ministry has initiated registration process to compile data pertaining to the textile industry. On a question by Khalida Mansoor (PML-N), he said that up till now, about 3000 textile units have applied for online registration, and added that there was no organised system of collecting such information before this.
He said that the ministry was mainly relying on the information provided by the textile associations. He said that as per information provided by the textile associations, the textile industry can be categorised into 'organised' and 'unorganised' sectors. Larger textile units of spinning, weaving and processing can be categorised in organised sector, and their number is almost 500, while power looms and SMEs sector is unorganised, he added.
The minister said that according to rough estimates only in Faisalabad there are almost 300,000 power looms. Exact number of textile mills presently functioning cannot be ascertained. Textile industry is distributed into mill and non-mill sectors. Regular data is available only for the mill sector.
Minister for Industries and Production Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo informed the National Assembly that total 94 ghee and cooking oil mills are functional in the country at present. Replying to a question from Shaheen Ishfaq (PML-N), he said that quality standards of these products are regularly monitored by Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority, Ministry of Science and Technology.
While replying to another question from Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman (PML-N), Wattoo said that the Ministry of Industries & Production under the initiative of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has undertaken some projects for promoting agro-based industry.
He said that following three projects are being implemented/under process through Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda): Agro Food Processing Facilities, Multan, Red Chillies Processing Centre, Kunri, Sindh, and Dates Processing Centre, Panjgur, Balochistan. Another project for facilitation of the agro based industry is being planned through National Industrial Parks Development Company, namely Agri-Industrial Park (AI), Okara, he added.
Agro Food Processing Project, Multan, inaugurated recently, is processing pulp, packaging and storage facilities for mango, guava, apple, etc, and grading and packaging citrus fruits.
Red Chillies Processing Centre (Kunri, Sindh) project has been approved in the recent meeting of CDWP. This Centre will provide dehydration, packaging and quality assurance facilities for red chillies to reduce aflotoxin levels and add value for export purposes. Dates Processing Centre (Panjgur-Balochistan), Smeda is preparing PC-I for this project. This Centre will provide packaging and storage facilities for dates.
Agri-Industrial Park, (AIP) Okara, has been planned for establishment at Okara. This initiative will assist the entire agro-based sector such as cotton, rice wheat, sugar, fruit juices, squashes, pickles, vegetable dehydration, milk processing, dairy products, animal/poultry feed, agriculture implements manufacturing facilities, etc. The identified land for AlP has been requested from Government of Punjab and decision is awaited.
Earlier replying to a question raised by Tasneem Siddiqui he said that the auto sector was operating under deletion policy up to 2006. As per requirements of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMs) regime, the deletion policy was phased out and replaced by a Tariff Based System (TBS) with effect from fiscal year 2006-07.
Under the deletion policy, the Government had some leverage to enforce localisation of parts/components and accordingly deletion targets were set and monitored. He said that according to WTO Rules local industry can be given due protection through tariff measures like higher tariff on import of localised parts and lower tariff on non-localised parts.
In this direction, the Government with due consultation with the stakeholders introduced Tariff Based System (TBS) under which localised parts are placed at a higher rate of import duty and lower rates on non-localised parts/components for vehicles. Additionally, local parts manufacturers are also facilitated through concessionary rate of import duty on their inputs ie 0 percent for raw-materials, 5 percent for sub-components, 10percent for components and 20percent for sub-assemblies.
The local manufacturing of indirect materials like car paints, sealant etc have also been facilitated under this regime. A roadmap has been given to the auto sector through Auto Industry Development Programme (AIDP) duly approved by the ECC to achieve further localisation of auto parts/components.
In this context during 2008-09 and 2009-10 six critical components/sub-assemblies have been localised and placed in the list of localised parts thereby any import of these would attract higher rate of import duty. The AIDP further envisages localisation of another 12 critical parts including engine and transmissions by 2010-11. The assemblers have also localised the body parts in addition to other sheet metal parts due to 0percent duty on raw materials.
Approximately, 716 components sub-assembly and assembly have also been localised by different assemblers either in-house or through vendors in addition to already achieved deletion levels of 2004. In addition to the above, on the instructions of Ministry of Industries & Production, the pre-CDWP meeting held on August 24, 2009 approved manufacturing of car transmission components by Pakistan Machine Tool Factory (PMTF) at an estimated cost of Rs 1.996 billion, he said.