Pakistan: Country’s exports heading towards total collapse

Overall exports of Pakistan are heading towards total collapse; textile industry is the only hope for the revival of country’s economy which is currently jolted by the energy crisis and liquidity crunch, said Asghar Ali, Chairman Pakistan Textile Exporters Association. Asghar Ali termed energy shortage and lack of finances the main reasons behind this decline. Elaborating he said that billions of rupees of textile exports were stuck up on account of exporter’s refunds of Sales tax, duty draw back and DLTL refund regime with various Government departments creating liquidity crunch. He said that Duty Drawback (Custom Rebate) has not been paid over the last three years and refund claims over Rs. 2 billion are pending just with the Model Collectorate Faisalabad, about 14 to 15 billion of rupees of exporters in Sales tax claims are blocked. Exporters are paying 1% SED (Special Excise Duty) on their inputs; however the same is not being refunded to the exporters. The amount of pending refund claims comes to around Rs. 3 billion which is not being sanctioned to the exporters since 2007, Also a large number of refund claims of duty drawback on polyester filament yarn are pending with Model Collectorate Customs Faisalabad since 2009. Polyester Filament Yarn is an important alternate raw material /input in manufacturing of exportable textile goods. Duty Drawback is admissible on Polyester Staple Fiber but Polyester Filament Yarn has been ignored. Polyester Staple Fiber and Polyester Filament Yarn both are products of Polyester. PTEA Chairman said that Pakistani exports were already under pressure due to prevailing economic financial, industrial crisis in the country as well as persistent law and order situation and the energy crisis which were badly affecting the industrial and trade activities, the productivity output and workers employment, he said. Textile export sector is a major forex earning sector to the tune of ten billion dollar plus per year. Textile exports of the country are crumbling and the industry and business were squeezing due to non availability of funds, he claimed. PTEA leaders urged the government to plan a strategy to solve economic issues to meet the challenges of global world. They demanded immediate payment of blocked refunds to enhance textile exports.