All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) has urged the government to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply to textile industries and speedy processing and liquidation of sales tax refunds.

The textile industry’s sustainability and growth are being damaged due to constriction in energy supply and liquidity crunch, said Yasin Siddik, central chairman of Aptm.

Energy supply constraints have led to forced closures of production capacities to the extent of 40 to 50 percent.

According to the textile leader, the textile industry requires federal textile policy 2014-19 to enable the industry to engulf structural imbalances.

Pakistan textile industry witnessed grim performance during the last fiscal year as it achieved only $13.7 billion in exports as against $13 billion of the preceding year. The textile exports target for FY14 was $16 billion.

The investment trend in the textile sector also witnessed decline as compared to other regional countries due to the non-availability of energy, inconsistent polices on taxes, and stuck up liquidity on drawbacks and refunds.