LAHORE: Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PHMA) central chairman Shahzad Azam Khan has asked the government to announce an immediate ban on cotton yarn export or at least fix a quota to limit its unabated exports, as the shortage of yarn continued to persist.
In a press statement issued here on Monday, he also demanded the elimination of all types of duties and taxes on import of industry’s raw material which is not being manufactured locally.
“The government can restrict the yarn exports from the country by fixing a quota as was announced in 2010 under SRO 119(I) to control the shortage if it is unable to put a complete ban on exports,” he suggested.
He warned that the textile industry will be forced to close down if the government failed to resolve our issues on a top priority basis, besides, rendering millions of workers jobless.
Shahzad Azam Khan appreciated the government for clearing hundreds of billions refunds of the last eleven years but insisted the government to also ensure availability of raw material at reasonable rates to further improve exports to avoid further taxes through mini-budget under the pressure of the IMF.
He said the value-added textile exports recorded a phenomenal growth due to incentives of the government last year. He said the value-added knitwear industry had warned the government about the shortage of yarn coupled with price spiral as the government failed to allow import of yarn through Wagha border.
Still this issue is irritating the value-added textile sector and expected to reverse positive trend of exports if immediate remedial measures were not taken, he said.
He said that the knitwear industry is playing a key role in creating new job opportunities to materialize the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to provide 10 million jobs. He said that we could not enhance exports without a level-playing field provided by the government by ensuring the regionally competitive rates of power and gas supply. “If the competitive tariffs of electricity and gas are withdrawn it would inflict a death blow to the textile sector in addition to affecting millions of workers,” he warned.
Shahzad Azam Khan said that despite 80 percent extra production of cotton as compared to the previous years’ low yield the country is still facing cotton shortage of 30-40 percent and to fulfill this gap we have to import cotton. He said that we earn three dollars from the export of one kilogram of cotton yarn but after its value addition we could earn 10-13 dollars from the same quantity of cotton yarn. He demanded that the government must clamp a ban on export of cotton yarn and exempt its import from all kinds of duties.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022