FAISALABAD: Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) President Engineer Muhammad Saeed Sheikh has said that liquidity crunch is a fundamental cause of decline in textile export and urged the government to immediately pay all refund claims of businessmen.
Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) President Engineer Muhammad Saeed Sheikh warned that continuous decline in national exports will foment unemployment in addition to further widening the import export deficit. He said, “Despite of the fact that European Union had granted GSP Plus status to Pakistan from 2014, we failed to give any support to our declining exports.”
He said the government has also ensured uninterrupted power and gas supply to industrial sectors but still the declining trend in export is continuing. He said that textile is the main stay of national economy and despite of worst situation, it has successfully maintained its position as leading export sectors of the country. It has also privilege to provide job to 38 percent population but they have been left at the mercy of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), he added.
He said that the refund claims of exporters are piling up with the FBR and they have to get fresh loans at high mark-up rate to fulfil the needs of working capital. He said that the chambers of commerce and industry and textile associations have been pin pointing these issues since long. The government has also given assurance to clear all pending claims but the factual position is that more and more refund claims are piling up with the payment of just a peanut of the total number of claims, he added.
He said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had openly acknowledged this issue. They had also assured that a comprehensive strategy will be evolved to permanently settle the refund issue, he added. He said that despite of these assurances, they are still facing problems which are further complicated with each passing day. He said that during this financial year, the five major export sector including textile were exempted from the sale tax but despite of this fact, the sale tax is being deducted on almost all exportable inputs and now this amount has been increased to unbearable proportions and is badly effecting there export businesses.
He said that the government should announce a clear policy to finally clear all the pending refund claims positively during the month of April so that the declining trend in the export could be checked. He said that the decline in export will continue if immediate remedial steps were not taken.
