FAISALABAD - The Pakistan Textile Exporters’ Association has demanded that the government should launch a bailout for the textile industry, besides removing hurdles and providing necessary incentives to strengthen economy, create jobs and generate forex.
PTEA Chairman Asghar Ali and Vice Chairman Muhammad Asif pinpointed various bottlenecks plaguing textile exports. They said that the most ticklish issue was rising cost of production as prices of raw material and inputs like gas, electricity and petroleum products were skyrocketing making our products uncompetitive in the international market.
“With abnormal high jump in raw material prices, the cost of value added textile products have enhanced enormously and the exports of goods become unviable in the face of tough competition in the international market. And the exporters are finding it difficult to continue their production as well as to meet their commitments made with foreign buyers. Appropriate measures should be taken to deal with the emerging challenges,” they said.  They expressed grave concern over stuck-up amounts of exporters on account of refunds of sales tax, custom rebate and DLTL regime creating liquidity crunch. Pakistani exports were already under pressure due to prevailing economic crisis as well as grave law and order which were badly affecting the industrial and trade activities, productivity output and jobs, they said.
“The textile export is a major forex-generating sector to the tune of over 12 billion dollar per year. Textile exports of the country are crumbling and the industry and business are squeezing due to unavailability of funds,” they claimed. The PTEA leaders said that textile sector had been facing depression and stagnancy since the last year due to energy crisis. Price hike and loadshedding were hampering the textile industry, they said.
Across the world, the governments help their industries by providing them with cheaper inputs enabling them not only to keep the wheel of industry running but also to successfully compete in international markets. However in Pakistan, the industry is not only burdened with high cost of energy but also disrupted supplies resulting in loss of productivity, they said.
Energy crisis should be addressed immediately, they demanded. Challenges like energy crisis, high interest rate, high power tariffs, frequent loadshedding of gas as well as deteriorating law and order were holding this mainstay of national economy back from growing up to full potential, they said.