MULTAN: The business community has urged upon the government to save the textile relating industry of monetary crunch by making payments of their refund claims as billions of rupees of exporters in DDT and DLTL have been stuck up with the government causing great sufferings to the already burdened exporters who are now at a loss to understand how to make both ends meet and such an alarming situation will ruin the export business of the value Added Textile Exporters.
Syed Muhammad Aasim Shah former vice president of FPCCI said that non-payment of DLTL and DDT claims of exporters is causing uncertainty among the textile sector of Pakistan and it is quite obvious from the stagnant export figures.
He said that it’s been four months since incumbent government is in power but no concrete efforts are made for the payment of pending claims under Textile Policy 2009-14 and Textile Policy 2014-19.
The government, he said, has not given any firm commitment to release DDT and DLTL claims, adding that “the previous government released Rs32.18 billion in respect of payment of DDT under PM Export Package and DLTL claims under Textile Policies of 2009-14 and 2014-19”. The incumbent government has not released a single rupee until today, he said.
He said that due to stuck up claims of over Rs 80 billion with the government under DLTL and DDT, the exporters are facing severe financial crunch. He further said that the liquidity issue is getting even worse with ever rising interest rates.
Syed Muhammad Aasim Shah former VP Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce & Industry further emphasized that due to financial restraints the production is compromised to the extent of missing the shipments date promised thus exporters are reluctant to take new orders.
Ex-chairman of APBUMA said that government has to honor its commitment with the textile sector to increase exports to overcome current account deficit and release payment to exporters otherwise economic conditions will further worsen due to decline in exports.
He informed that Pakistani exporter would participate in Heimtextil Fair in January 2019 and take orders from international buyers. He feared with these conditions and financial stress, Pakistani exporters will not have confidence to take extra orders. He showed his disappointment with the approach of the Government.
Syed Muhammad Aasim Shah hoped that the federal government sensing the gravity of the issue will release funds for the pending claims under various drawback schemes and will help restore the confidence of the exporters.
He articulated that value-added textile export sector is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy that earns major amount of foreign exchange and revenue for the government. Besides, the sector is also labour intensive and largest employment provider and generator. He said that value-added textile exporters were battling for their survival in the global market due to costly inputs and high cost of manufacturing.
