At a time when the world renowned economists are branding Pakistan’s economy as vibrant, the country has been facing a huge shortfall of textile exports for the last some time. According to SM Tanveer, the chairman of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association, an emergent meeting of the general body of the association has decided to close down the textile industry voluntarily. He says that the industry is facing adverse circumstances and finds it hard to incur losses and continue to operate mills. He says that that it is better to close down textile units voluntarily rather than confronting with the government on pressing issues. The country is facing severe electricity shortage and the cost of operating textile units has hit through the roof. The burden of incidental taxes, provincial cess, system inefficiencies and punitive withholding tax regime has added fuel to the fire, making the business of textile industry unviable in the country. The government has miserably failed to bring the unorganized sectors into tax net while all the incidentals and punitive measures have hit the sustainability of the textile industry in the country.
He says that the federal government has imposed a surcharge of Rs 3.60 per unit to mitigate the positive impact of tariff reduction by National Electric Power Regulatory Authority. The textile industry is unable to bear this burden despite operating on independent feeders with no line losses and theft and 100 percent payment of bills. He says that the regional competitors are paying less than 10 cent against 14.50 cent electricity tariff in Pakistan. Majority of the mills is already operating partially because of energy mismatch at present. The chairman said that the textile millers from Khyber Pakhtunkha, Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and Karachi have decided to close down operations and lay off millions of workers, as they have nothing to offer their international buyers against the competitors in the region.
As a matter of fact the country is facing poor management in every sector of life while every successive government has ignored the issue of growing electricity demand in the country. The issue of electricity coupled with terrorism has adversely affected the overall growth of the country. The current government has launched a number of energy projects in collaboration with various economic partners, including China. It is hoped that the energy shortfall will be defeated during the next three years. Despite the worst kind of energy shortfall, the industries are still showing growth and need the government support which should have to lower taxes and duties to boost the textile industry.
