LAHORE: Textile exports, amid all gloom and doom, showed encouraging growth of 3.9 percent year-on-year and reached $13.8 billion in fiscal year 2014 as against $13.3 billion during the corresponding period of last year.
Most of the textile exports were to EU which surged by 18 percent on YoY and reached $5 billion in FY14.
This was mainly due to GSP plus status (duty free access) awarded by EU. However, apart from EU, over all the textile exports were declined by 3.5 percent during the corresponding period.
According to reports, cotton cloth remained major product which supported overall export followed by knitwear, bed wear, cotton yarn and readymade garments. About major negatives for textile exports, the report states, due to highly sensitivity with the US dollar, local textile exports are taking hit of rupee appreciation against US dollar. Although, the government incentivised the sector with offering low interest rate loan to exporters but most of the exporters are unable to utilise the facility. Moreover, appreciation in the rate of Pak rupees has also made local textile product less competitive in the international market.
Power crisis, the local textile is also facing the hurdle from power and gas outages which is not only hitting production but also increasing the cost of production as companies have to rely on costlier furnace oil to run their generators.
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