LAHORE: Major (R) SH. M. Rafique Sethi Chairman PLGMEA (NZ) has urged the govt. to review the grave situation of devaluation of US dollar — which has crushed the exporters financially — and take immediate effective bold steps to formulate pragmatic policies to compensate the exporters appropriately against the badly suffered losses by fixing US$ rate minimum at PKR 105/- since the date of PKR appreciation by govt., for foreign remittances received in exporters’ banks or govt. should pay 10% compensatory rebate to exporters.
The Chairman PLGMEA (NZ) said that PKR appreciation has helped the government of Pakistan to reduce debits obtained from IMF loans Rs. 44.039 billions and government has gained benefits but the exporters have badly suffered due to govt’s sudden decision of US$ slide in the country. This factor has pushed leather garments industry into deep crises. It has caused millions of rupees losses to the exporters.
The Chairman said that we value the US dollar depreciation which is good to make the PKR stable in comparison to other currencies but we strongly condemn the sudden change & grave fluctuation which has destroyed the exporters of leather & leather garments who have made great efforts in procurement of huge bulk orders for Pakistan by recent participation in APLF Hong Kong Fair April 2014 to sincerely support the vision of Prime Minister of Pakistan to boost the exports from Pakistan to turn Pakistan into a real Asian Tiger.
The Chairman PLGMEA (NZ) said that the customers are not interested in buying garments at even minor high prices and are not ready to accept any increase in prices due to devaluation of US$. Since we are not getting right prices therefore we have started refusing to produce further export orders. The exporters had calculated the payments at Rs. 108/- against US$ but sudden depreciation of US$ up to PKR: 95/- which in fact has caused great shocks & losses to every exporter because no one was mentally prepared for such sudden decline of US$.
He urged the government & Ishaq Dar Federal Minister for Finance to immediately take notice of this serious complaint projected & highlighted by trade bodies & chamber of commerce to arrange compensation for exporters who have been continuously suffering losses in the shape of less exchanged PKR converted from the foreign remittances received in banks.
He demanded that the govt. should avoid aggressive dictated approach and enforce consistency in policies and should take exporters into full confidence to discuss such issues threadbare before taking such drastic measures, due to which uncertainty is prevailing and now no one can predict that what adverse effects will happen in the next few days.
Our industry is facing a great risk & entire scenario looks like unstable and extremely shaken. In view govt should take serious notice of such big losses to save the value added leather garments exporters industry from shutting down by taking speedy fool proof measures to compensate all the exporters as suggested above.
