FAISALABAD: PTEA Chairman Ajmal Farooq has said that extreme cash flow crunch and high energy prices are hampering the export growth and adversely impacting the industry. He said exports are falling consistently both in value and quantities and yrged the government to immediately intervene to check the drastic downfall in exports. In a statement issued here on Tuesday, he termed severe liquidity crunch and high energy prices as major cause of export decline. They appealed the government to rescue the ailing textile industry as extreme cash flow crunch has squeezed the financial streams and breading liquidity jerks. Massive working capital of textile exporters has been held in sales tax, custom rebate and income tax refund regime increasing the financial stress and textile exporters are unable to enhance their export turn over. He condemned the government’s indifferent attitude towards the Punjab-based textile industry as it is facing a serious blow of non-viability due to the high cost of doing business.
Industries in Punjab are compelled to use high priced RLNG; whereas industries in other provinces are supplied system gas at reduced tariff, he added.
He demanded the government to bail out textile industry and exports from financial crisis by immediately releasing of stuck-up amounts in refund regime. He further demanded to supply gas to the industries on equal prices across the board enabling them to retain their competitive edge in international market.
