LAHORE: Federal Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastagir has held separate meetings with the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) and carpet exporters on the issue of tax rebates.
While talking to media, the minister acknowledged that the industry was facing troubles due to delayed refunds and many policy flaws. However, Dastagir said that from now on the government would engage with the textile sector regularly. He said that he would take up the issue of local taxes on textile exporters with other ministries and agencies to make the exports ‘truly zero-rated’.
The minister said the government after two years of consolidation was now in a position to facilitate the exporting sectors through incentives, market access and a viable long-term policy. “The cumbersome issues of businessmen need right actions from different ministries, including commerce, finance, petroleum, and water and power,” he said.
Dastagir said that the expected approval of the Strategic Trade Policy Framework next month would make a financing of Rs6 billion available to exporters under the government’s trade facilitation programme.
Earlier, Aptma Chairman SM Tanveer informed the minister about the dangerous position of the industry that operating much below its capacity because of lack of global orders. He cited high cost of doing business in Pakistan and subsidies given by rival textile exporting countries as the main reasons for this decline.
