The Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) has strongly condemned the fictitious representatives of the textile industry and said non-stakeholders are ruining the government’s efforts for revival of ailing textile industry by placing unproductive and baseless proposals. Referring to the statement of the Council of All Pakistan Textile Associations chairman, Zubair Motiwala, PTEA Chairman Ajmal Farooq and Vice Chairman Muhammad Naeem termed it highly unfortunate that some outsiders without any link with textile industry are misleading the government with their baseless suggestions and sabotaging the efforts of the revival of the textile sector.
These elements are against the revival of the country’s major export industry and are playing just for their own vested interests, the three added. Industries in Sindh are paying Rs 488 per mmbtu for system gas whereas industries in Punjab are paying Rs900 per mmbtu for RLNG. In such circumstances, how could Punjab industry compete, they asked.
They added the government is moving in the right direction for uplifting exports and consideration of custom rebate and cash subsidies is a positive move which will not only help restore the competitiveness of textile industry in international market but would also revive the substantial capacity to produce exportable surplus they added.
Farooq feels competing countries like Bangladesh, India, China and Vietnam are rapidly multiplying exports because of their edge in cost of doing business and incentives offered by governments. High cost of production and un-competitiveness are major hurdles in export growth and pragmatic incentive schemes need to be announced to reduce the cost of production and create a level playing field, he suggested.