Government urged to pay ST refund immediately

The Chief Executive of TDAP S M Muneer has urged the government to immediately pay sales tax refund to business community which were delayed for last two years. This is a great hurdle in the economic growth of country. “If government pays this refund to all business community, he takes responsibility to take export to $5 billion during this year,” he added.

He was speaking at the First International Textile Conference & Awards 2015, organised by Publicity Channel in collaboration with TDAP, Ministry of Textile, GOP, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) and Towel Manufacturers Association Pakistan (TMAP). Guest of honour Chairman Board of Investment Dr Miftah Ismail talked about investment prospects in textile sector and told that economy is moving forward in Pakistan. “We are included in IMF programme for the last one and a half year and six reviews have been done so far very successfully. Government is doing all those tasks as promised by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the election manifesto”, he said.

He said the economy has been stabilised and Pakistan has already taken off on road to prosperity. Now everyone should play one”s role for development of the country. Chairman Towel Manufacturers Association Pakistan Mehtabuddin Chawla said that after winning status of GSP Plus, the government is engaged in signing understandings with countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Turkey which will allow zero percent custom duty on exports. Assurance by Prime Minister to facilitate investments is encouraging. Now, the people should make investments in the country, he said. Former Advisor to Prime Minister on Textiles, Dr Mirza Ikhtiar Baig said the foreign investors should also come and do business with complete peace of mind with Pakistanis. He gave an overview of textile sector saying that this sector accounts for 55 percent of the total exports with a volume of US $13 million. This sector provides 38 percent jobs with 10 percent contribution to the GDP.