The Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) has demanded here on Saturday provision of uninterrupted energy supply to the textile industrial sector to enable it competitive in the international markets.
Expressing concerns over drop of 7.89 per cent in exports in July 2014 despite the availability of GSP Plus benefit, Sheikh Ilyas Mahmood, Chairman, and Adil Tahir, Vice Chairman, PTEA, said that unprecedented energy shortage was the prime reason behind the substantial drop in exports.
They said that export numbers in coming months might be even worse as the textile industry in Punjab had been deprived of its basic fuels and textile exports witnessed 2.37 per cent decline in July over same month of outgoing fiscal.
Energy shortage is the prime cause of decline in exports as 50 per cent of production capacity of textile industry is dysfunctional due to short supply of electricity and gas. Drop in exports would have serious consequences for the economy but the government was not addressing the reasons behind the drop in exports, they deplored.
Policymakers are not serious in resolving gas supply issue of the textile industry. Instead the available gas is being supplied to the unproductive sectors, causing a loss in terms of foreign exchange, they argued.
Situation was becoming unbearable for industry as constant inefficiency was plaguing the viability of production units, they added.
Even, the GSP plus facility has not bring in any desired results and efforts had also gone wasted as they were unable to produce export surplus due to massive energy constraints, they said.
Acute energy shortage had chucked the Punjab industry in a bottomless crisis and due to this jobs of thousands of workers were in danger as closure of industry had been started, they added.
PTEA chairman Sheikh Ilyas Mahmood was of the view that non-availability of energy, high interest rate and stuck up liquidity on drawbacks and refunds had played a vital role in the lower growth and exports of Pakistan textile industry.
He said that drop in exports and the health of textile sector was being taken up by PTEA at various forums but the government did not understand the gravity of the situation and no steps were taken to ratify the situation. Now was the time that the repair had to be made otherwise decline in exports would put irreparable loss to economy, he added.
