ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Commerce has formally denied setting sector wise export targets in Trade Policy 2012-15, saying that no target has been achieved so far.
“The exports of textile sector have grown in 2013-14 as compared to the year 2012-13 by 5.3%, despite the fact that no sector-wise break ups was set in the trade policy announced on January 31, 2013, however, one of the goals was to increase Pakistan’s cumulative exports to $ 95 billion during 2012-15,” said official documents available with this scribe.
The documents said that it was observed that textile working as per routine in the country but due to Load-shedding of gas and power failures a few units temporarily stopped their production, however, after resumption of the gas and the power these units the production activity had been resumed.
“There is no report of closure due to reduction of Gas quota,” the documents refuted reports about closure of textile units in the country due to non provision of gas and power to them. However, the documents further revealed that impacts the viability of industry production due to low main hour utilization for which industry is protesting.
When contacted to seek guidance from Ministry of Commerce, a well-placed official source said on anonymity condition that government had taken numerous measures to revive the sinking textile units. “The Ministry of Water & Power and Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Resources have been requested to ensure availability of power and gas to the Textile Industry which is export-based and has to meet the demands of International Supply commitments in time” the source observed.
Furthermore, the source said that the Prime Minister constituted a committee headed by the Finance Minister with Minister for Petroleum & Gas and Textile Minister as its members for solution of such problems and various meetings with the quarters concerned for uninterrupted supply of gas and electricity to the textile units.
