Aamir Fayyaz the chairman of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has urged the government to resolve issues relating to cotton, liquidity, competitiveness, taxes, zero rating facility and the long term finance facility of the textile industry and enable the industry to undertake investment worth $1 billion per annum. Addressing a press conference recently, he said Pakistan’s exports have nose-dived by $3 billion during the financial year 2015-16. Of this, a drop in textile and clothing exports of $1 billion was noticed. He said the textile and clothing exports of Bangladesh and Vietnam have registered an increase of $2 billion and $4 billion respectively during the same period. He apprehended that the exports in Pakistan would continue declining unless the cost of doing business is lowered by the government.

Fayyaz also demanded liquidation of all the pending refunds of the textile industry to discharge liabilities and process further export orders. He said that the government should also provide DLTL to all exports to mitigate the incidentals of innovative taxes and levies. According to him, the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess on gas and surcharges on the electricity has increased the cost of production and the prevailing odd circumstances demand their withdrawal to revive competitiveness in line with the regional competitors.

Fayyaz lamented the zero rating facility was also not implemented in true letter and spirit. Since this situation will put the industry into a cumbersome state of affairs, therefore the facility should be in accordance with the announcement made by the prime minister. He added that the government should also allocate sufficient funds under the LTFF to propel up the prospective investors to take investment initiatives. He expressed hope that the government would prioritise the textile industry in its policies to produce exportable surplus, double textile exports and create 3 million additional jobs in the country.