SIALKOT: The inordinate delay in the issuance of duty draw back claims to the Sialkot based gloves manufacturers and exporters has been resulted into as many as 12 percent visible decline in the exports of gloves from Sialkot , due to which the gloves exporters have been suffering from great financial crisis.
In Sialkot, the gloves manufacturers and exporters have expressed grave concern over this critical condition.
They said that the down fall of the gloves industry in Sialkot began after the massive reduction in duty draw back ratio to only 1.54 percent by the government; while, the concerned departments were still adopting the inordinate delay in the issuance of the duty draw back to the gloves exporters.
They urged the government to increase the duty draw back ratio from 1.54 percent to 12 percent like the China and India, as both of these countries were fully supporting their gloves manufacturers and exporters by giving them the maximum trade and export related incentives as well.
Sialkot based leading gloves exporter Muhammad Anwar Butt (former Chairman of Pakistan Gloves Manufacturers and Exporters Association-PGMEA) said that the gloves industry was badly hit by the electricity and gas outages, which proved a “cut throat” for the gloves industry in Sialkot.
Muhammad Anwar Butt added that the gloves manufacturers and exporters have been getting the raw leather material on very high rates in Pakistan as compared to China and India, due to which the Sialkot exporters were producing the leather gloves very costly as compared to China and India. “It has become very hard for us to compete China and India in the international trade markets”, they added.
Other exporters Suhail Khawar Mir, Merajud Din, Arif Mehmood, Khawar Iqbal, Muhammad Akmal, Nasir Mehmood, Abdul Majeed , Tanveer Ahmed, Muhammad Saleem and Ghulam Hussain said that there was no fresh investment in gloves industry of Sialkot, as the industrialists and exporters were considering to divert their business line to the other businesses.
They said that the Sialkot was also lacking an international standard material testing laboratory, due to which the gloves exporters have been suffering from great difficulties in getting the material of their leather gloves products tested.
They said that the European Union (EU) has already told Pakistan to ensure the lab test of their leather products and the EU businessmen would not accept the leather products from Pakistan without their laboratory tests from 2018. They said that this EU warning has also put the Sialkot based leathers gloves manufacturers and exporters into the hot waters as well.
They added that now the present leather gloves exports were US$225 million with 12 percent visible decline.
Meanwhile, Chairman Pakistan Gloves Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PGMEA) Suhail Masud, Senior Vice Chairman Qamar Muneer Sulehria and Vice Chairman PGMEA Muhammad Arshad Chaudhary have also expressed grave concern on this prevailing critical situation of gloves industry in Sialkot.
