KARACHI: All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has urged the government to pay 10 per cent rebate to textile exporters to shield themselves from the inventory losses they have incurred due to the fast appreciation of the Pakistani rupee against the US dollar.
“We want the government to tell us where exactly the rupee is going to stabilise against the dollar,” said APTMA Chairman Yasin Siddik. “Textile exporters have already faced the brunt of $ 300 million in exchange rate losses and huge cotton inventories,” Siddik added.
He was speaking at a press conference at the APTMA House in the presence of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) Chief Executive S M Muneer. “We just want the government to provide rebate on business deals textile exporters made during March-September 2013,” Siddik replied to a question.
The sudden surge of rupee value against the dollar has disturbed the business cycle of textile exporters who get export payments after a lag of 90-120 days. Moreover, the rupee is still surging against the dollar, making exporters vulnerable to further losses if they make new business deals, Siddik added.
“When the dollar was appreciating against the rupee, the exporters were making small gains like 10-20 paisa per dollar. It was a slow and gradual process. However, the depreciation of the dollar was abrupt which is why it jolted the business cycle of exports,” Siddik answered when asked why exporters refrained from complaining when the rupee was depreciated from Rs 100 to Rs 107 per dollar.
Siddik and TDAP chief executive requested Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to immediately meet textile exporters and fix the rupee-dollar parity to shield exporters from exchange losses.
