Further rate-cut demanded to make bedwear exports competitive

The bedwear exporters demanded the federal government to further slash the discount rate as well as a higher input cost to make Pakistani produces more competitive in the international market. The demand came from Pakistan Bedwear Exporters Association (PBEA) Chairman, Zain Bashir during a briefing here at a local hotel.
Flanked by other exporters like Shabbier Ahmed and Naqi Bari, Zain said the move would enhance the volume of country’s exports of the bedwear textile. He said India, Sri Lanka, China and Bangladesh were the major competitors of Pakistan on the world market. Zain expressed concern over the contracting bedwear exports that had plummeted to $ 1.7 billion in 2012 from over $ 2 billion in 2005 and 2006.
The newly-elected PBEA chief vowed to leave no stone unturned to regain the country’s former textile exports status and compete with the neighboring countries on the world markets. “What is required from the government is cooperation and support,” he demanded.
He said utilities tariffs particularly gas were higher in Pakistan for the textile industry than that of key competing nations namely India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. “All have a gas rate which is lower than that of Pakistan,” he added.
Besides, he said, the markup rate for textile industries in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and China were lower than what the manufacturers pay in Pakistan. “India and Bangladesh provide direct support to their respective textile exporters in the form of drawbacks,” said Zain.
He said costs of gas and of finances to the textile sector in Pakistan are also higher than that of international competitors. He said if the textile exporters were provided with the appropriate support, they would have had a significant growth in the last six years. “It is tragic to see that instead of increasing our share on the world markets and helping the country earn foreign revenue, we have gone backward,” he lamented.
The chairman said Pakistan was a rich country with natural resources in abundance but nothing of it could have been utilised in the past efficiently to bring out the nation of power and financial crisis. “There is plentiful coal in Pakistan,” he said.
He said small investments in coal mining could trigger great progress in the energy generation to suffice the much needed power for residential, commercial and manufacturing sectors of the country. “Very little investment is required to mine the coal and process it to bring it to a level that it can be used as fuel,” he viewed.
He said the natural gas in the country was being wasted to fuel private vehicles and residences throughout the country whereas such an import input should only be spared for the industrial requirements. “That is because the rest of the world known the significance of the precious natural resource, which needs efficient and careful utilisation in Pakistan as well,” he suggested.
Zain said gas loss which the country is facing could be gauged as Unaccounted for Gas (UFG). He said: “It is shocking that a country starved for natural gas is in reality experiencing UFG loss of over 10 per cent in residential and commercial sectors. It is noteworthy that UFG loss is below 2 percent in industrial sector”.
Despite the textile manufacturing sector utilization of gas in more efficient, it has been slapped with forced load shedding of the input, he showed regrets. The industrial sector runs on over 60 percent efficiency whereas home geysers run at 18 percent efficiency” he gave a comparison.