Chairman Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PRGMEA) North Zone, Mubashar Naseer has urged the government to release duty drawbacks of the value-added sector under the 'Drawback on Taxes and Levies Order, 2009 Scheme'.
He said the textile exporters are experiencing severe liquidity crisis, and the delay in the release of duty drawbacks has pushed a number of export-oriented units to the brink of closure.
It may be noted that for the first time in the country's history that the government came up with a textile policy, proposing to sanction drawbacks worth Rs 17 billion for 2009-10 fiscal and Rs 27 billion for the 2010-11 fiscal. Former Finance Minister, Shaukat Tarin and Ex-Minister for Textile Industry, Rana Muhammad Farooq Saeed Khan had given assurance on several occasions that the DLTL Scheme would not be withdrawn before the expiry of the Textile Policy 2009-2014.
However, these promises have not been kept, which has disappointed the exporters. Also, it has made it impossible for the exporters, who are struggling to attain the export target of $25 billion, to compete in the world market. The textile export target of $25 billion has been fixed by the Ministry of Textile and is to be achieved by 2014. The chairman PRGMEA said the government has so far paid only 14 percent against the claims for 2010-11. He said the exports registered an increase of 32 percent in value terms and 36 percent in volume terms.
Naseer feared that fresh orders from the foreign buyers might shift to Bangladesh and China in case the government does not come up with an incentive to attract the buyers. A discontinuity of the 'Drawback on Taxes and Levies Order, 2009 Scheme' is not in the interest of the value-added industry, he added. He said that a large number of exporters were seriously thinking of shifting their businesses to Bangladesh in order to attract the foreign buyers, who were already rushing there to place fresh orders.