KARACHI: Saqib Naseem, central chairman Pakistan Yarn Merchants Association (PYMA) and Muhammad Junaid Teli, vice chairman, Sindh and Balochistan region have urged the government to cut the Customs duty on polyester yarn and abolis1h anti-dumping as per announcement in budget 2021-22.

They said that the government had announced in the budget 2021-22 to reduce the Customs duty at nine percent on polyester yarn, the main raw material of the textile industry, but after many months, neither Customs duty nor the anti-dumping duty has been reduced.

At the first meeting of the Managing Committee, PYMA office-bearers urged the Prime Minister Imran Khan, Advisor on Trade & Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood, and Finance Adviser, Shaukat Tarin that the government should fulfil promise to reduce Customs duty from 11 percent to nine percent on polyester yarn. Similarly, the anti-dumping duty should be abolished in the best interest of the textile industry, especially SMEs.

M Usman, Khurshid Shaikh, Hanif Lakhany, Saqib Goodluck, Farhan Ashrafi, Jawed Khanani, Altaf Haroon, Noman Ilyas, Asif Amanullah, Behroze Kapadia, Shoaib Sharif, Rizwan Almas, Sohail Nisar and Rizwan Diwan also attended the meeting.

Saqib Naseem, Junaid Teli further said that the prices of polyester yarn have gone up due to rising oil prices, excess freight charges and shortage of containers in the global market. As a result, the textile industry, SMEs, especially power looms, are suffering from high costs. They are having difficulty making cloth while it is becoming extremely difficult for them to run the units.

PYMA office-bearers added that the steady rise in production costs has forced SMEs and small businesses to consider whether to continue their production activities in the current dire economic situation, as the high cost, continuing to work for SMEs and small businesses is nothing but a loss-making.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021