The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association
(ATPMA) group leaders want the Pakistani government to take over the country’s
textile industry, the Pakistani media has reported.
APTMA chairman SM Tanveer and a group leader
Gohar Ejaz have said, "The textile industry has become unviable because of
the heavily subsidised textile industries in the competing countries of the
region."
In a separate development, the Pakistan
readymade garments manufacturers and exporters association (PRGMEA) has called
for giving special status to export-oriented value-added textile industry
allowing it zero rating facility to boost new investment and revive economic
growth.
PRGEMA central chairman Ijaz Khokhar said in
Lahore that value-added textile sector should be given special status by
separating it from other textile chains as it was generating more employment
and revenue.
Tanveer said that the duration of gas load
shedding for Punjab’s textile industry has been increased by two hours and now
the industry gets gas for only 6 hours. He said that the shortage of gas in
summer is beyond understanding and if the gas shortage continues, the export
target could not be achieved.
"The government is not responding to the
problems of the textile industry despite repeated calls," Ejaz lamented,
and demanded that the association chairman be swiftly appointed as textile
industry minister.
The APTMA leadership said declining exports,
shrinking domestic market and capacity closures were a source of concern for
the industry. "This situation has arisen out of high cost, energy
shortages, old technology, absence of zero rating, shortage of raw materials,
marketing disadvantages, absence of institutional support and policy-implementation
divide."
Tanveer said Pakistan's textile industry had
registered a decline of 16 per cent in exports in March and warned that exports
could worsen. "Already Pakistan's growth has been stagnant to 22 per cent
against 160 per cent of Bangladesh during 2008-2013," he said.