Mian Rashid Asghar
FAISALABAD: Textile exporters have welcomed the industrial package focused on industrialization, foreign exchange inflows and revival of sick industrial units. The new industrial plan has set in place pro-growth measures to steam up the industrialization, gear up the exports and put country’s economy on growth track.
Appreciating the Government’s initiative, Chairman Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) Sohail Pasha termed the industrial package as a right move that will lead to the industrial revolution and boost economic productivity in the country. The protection of the stakes of the industrial sector and a good pace of economic progress is a must to tackle the ongoing challenges, he added. This package would translate into a growth-led revenue generation to overcome the revenue and current account deficit and also revive the idle capacity, he hoped. He briefed that a sizable textile capacity was converted into non-functional or sick units on account of worse business conditions during the last decade and in absence of any mechanism for rehabilitation, textile industry is unable to produce according to installed capacity. Now, with this package, the activation of idle capacities in the value-added textile sector has become possible which will significantly help in fetching extra 1.5-billion-dollar precious forex and generate more 100,000 employment opportunities.
Appreciating Government assistance in gaining the positive growth in exports, PTEA’s Vice Chairman Ameer Ahmad said that Government is serious about pushing exports came up with export facilitation policies including Export Facilitation Scheme and competitive energy prices in the key export industries like textiles. These initiatives significantly helped to improve the liquidity conditions and enhanced the capacity utilization of the sector. Resultantly country has witnessed a rapid recovery of exports since the removal of coronavirus-related restrictions as its outbound shipments in recent months have actually risen faster than those of regional competitors Bangladesh and India. Vast range of global opportunities are still emerging in textile domain and it is the time to support textile export sector to achieve the desired goal of economic prosperity through enhanced exports, he said. Pointing out liquidity issues faced by textile exporters, he said that billions of rupees of textile exporters are stuck in old sales tax, Income Tax and Provincial Sales Tax Regime and also in textile policy incentive schemes which has created financial issues. He urged for expeditious disbursement to exporters’ stuck up liquidity and also for issuance of DDT notification 2021-25 as announced in recently approved textile policy 2020-25.
He was of the view that to get benefit from the economic potential that lies in the textile sector, a number of curated policy measures have to be taken that can support the sustainable growth of the textile industry. He concluded that a sustainable and inclusive economic growth is the key to a strong and vibrant Pakistan, which can open the door for development and prosperity.
