APTMA Attributes Exports Decline To High Business Cost

APTMA Attributes Exports Decline To High Business Cost
The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has said textile exports have declined in the last four years due to high business costs. APTMA senior vice chairman Zahid Mazhar urged the government to remove the gas infrastructure development cess and provide gas at the regionally competitive rate of PKR 400 per a million British thermal units.
This particular rate was announced by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Pakistani cabinet in November 2016.
The spinning and weaving sectors, the backbone of the textile value chain, are facing the brunt of high cost of doing business and this has made them unviable, Pakistani media reports said quoting Mazhar.
As the production of yarn and fabric is substantially higher than the local consumption, their exports must be encouraged, he said.
He also urged the government to check large-scale influx of imported yarn and fabric in the country to protect the domestic industry and pay the long-outstanding sales tax and other refunds to manufacturers in the textile sector to address the liquidity issue