Textile-Specific Subsidies in India Make Pakistan Industry Uncompetitive

Textile-specific subsidies in India make Pakistan industry uncompetitive: APTMA

Group Leader APTMA Gohar Ejaz has cautioned the government that overloaded textile-specific subsidies in India has made Pakistan’s textile industry uncompetitive. According to him, the weaving industry of Pakistan has come to halt by fifty percent due to the flooding of imported as well as smuggled cloth from regional countries.

He has also sought apology from the people of Pakistan for not creating jobs during last five years due to circumstances beyond industry control. “The textile industry cannot fight with the government policies in the region,” he said and urged the government of Pakistan to enable the industry to compete regionally. Earlier, central chairman APTMA S M Tanveer said the Textile Policy 2014-19 has not seen daylight despite eight months of current fiscal, reflecting lack of interest of the federal government in promoting and protecting textile industry.

Both of them were holding a joint press conference at the APTMA Punjab office. Chairman APTMA said delay in announcement of textile policy 2014-19 further suggests that the present government is not different from the previous one, which had allocated Rs 180 billion in Textile Policy 2009-14 whereas it disbursed only Rs 28 billion which is 15% lower of the allocation’ he added.

He said both India and Bangladesh announced their Textile Policies and registered 2008-2013 a growth of 94% and 160% respectively in exports against merely 22% of Pakistan during 2009-14. The World textile exports also grew by 45% on an average during the same period, he said. While dubbing the federal textile ministry as “toothless” and “failed” ministry, he said an undue delay in announcement of textile policy 2014-19 has already left Pakistan far behind against the region counterparts, he added. According to him, the proposed textile policy for 2014-19 speaks about allocation of Rs 60 billion, which is a drop in the ocean and government should enhance it to Rs 200 billion at least.