Textile exporters have criticized nonpayment of custom rebate for the last two years from Faisalabad Dry port model collectorate. Millions of rupees in rebate are stuck up creating severe liquidity crunch for exporters who are already suffering from continuous load shedding of electricity and gas in Punjab, said Rana Arif Tauseef chairman Pakistan Textile Exporters Association talking to newsmen here today.
Rana Arif Tauseef expressed grave concern over stuck up amounts of exporters on account of custom rebate regime creating liquidity crunch. Pakistani exports were already under pressure due to prevailing economic, financial, industrial crisis in the country as well as persistent law and order situation which were badly affecting the industrial and trade activities, the productivity output and workers employment, he said.
Textile export sector is a major forex earning sector to the tune of 13 billion dollar plus per year. Textile exports of the country are crumbling and the industry and business were squeezing due to non availability of funds, he claimed. Held up amounts of exporter’s funds under the above head have created financial crunch for the exporters and they are unable to increase their exports, it was contended. This was evident from the 12% decline in textile exports in February of current fiscal export figures. Overall growth in textile exports in the past eight months posted a negative growth of 7.5 per cent, as it touched USD 7.97 billion in July-February this year from USD 8.62 billion over the corresponding period last year. This declining trend in export sector if not checked immediately would be dangerous for national economy, he argued. The export sector was life line of national economy and was a very sensitive sector. Any disruption in the tempo or bottleneck in export facilitation would not only hurt the exports of the country but also have devastating impact on the industry causing productivity loss, job losses and industrial unrest, he said. Rana Arif said that severe shortage of energy was already almost devastating the manufacturing and industrial sectors rendering export units dysfunctional and this situation is resulting in the loss of production. Emphasizing the importance of conducive industrial promotion and productivity augmentation conditions in the country, PTEA chairman said, to keep the industrial wheel running and providing maximum job employment to working hands in the country, it was imperative to facilitate the optimum industrial activity. PTEA chairman demanded the Government to bail out textile industry and exports from current crisis by removing hurdles and provision of necessary incentives to increase the textile exports of the country. He demanded early release of blocked funds in custom rebate regime to enable the textile exporters to retain their hard won export markets at this time of tough competition in international markets.
