LAHORE: There must be consistency in the policies and no way back for quite some time for the long run growth and development while overnight shift in policies has also ways been disadvantageous.
This was stated by Pakistan Businesses Forum (PBF) President and former FPCCI Chairman Standing Committee on Textiles, Sahibzada Mian Usman Zulfiqar while talking to Customs Today on Saturday.
He said condition of the textile industry will worsen amid liquidity crunch and shrinking global business, and will lead to closure of industrial units, decline in exports and massive unemployment.
As more industry would close in Pakistan and textile sector would go down. “Number of exporters is decreasing in Pakistan”. He said the value-added textile export industry had rejected the federal budget for 2020-21, terming it “one-sided and unrealistic” without any relief for the textile industry, which was the backbone of the economy and exports.
If the government supported industry, liquidity would have improved, “now, unemployment will increase”. How would they handle this is what matters now, he questioned.
Being the most labour-intensive, the textile industry provides employment to a huge number of female workers, particularly to the lower class, in garment units.
The PBF was of the view that the textile industry had been completely ignored and deprived of relief in the federal budget, which purportedly had been made on directives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Mr Usman said the imposition of 17% sales tax in the previous budget had brought a disastrous impact on the textile industry and its exports as well as caused liquidity crunch due to stuck refunds worth billions of rupees. “The demand for restoring the zero-rating facility and proposals of the textile export sector have been is regarded,”
Value-added textile exporters have expressed sheer disappointment and have demanded that the government review and restore the zero-rated
regime for the five major export sectors as a lifeline for the economy.
They urged the government to reconsider restoring the zero-rating facility. The PBF President was of the view that the government ignored the global business shrinkage and the challenges faced by the local textile Industry.
