Muhammad Naseer Malik, Vice Chairman Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) appreciating the government of Pakistan for announcing an ambitious Textile Policy for next five year 2014-19 has urged the government that all stuck up claims of the exporters including DLTL, Custom Rebates, Sales Tax Rebate etc need to be released within a month.

He stated that the Pakistan government seems determined to boost textile and clothing sector exports from $13 billion to $26 billion by 2019; however, keeping in view the energy crisis and other challenges, but achieving this target requires extra ordinary efforts

He commended the government’s initiative to offer about Rs. 64.15 billion cash subsidy to textile and clothing sector in the new textile policy and hoped that if implemented, this concession will help in improving textile exports.

He stressed the need for implementing the policy in letter and spirit if the required targets are to be achieved including a 100% increase in value addition from $1 billion per million bales to $2 billion per million bales in the next five years.

Talking about GSP Plus he said that GSP plus facility does not seem to reap the expected growth rate of increasing textile exports to $14 billion, particularly due to unavailability of gas and electricity to the textile industries. The government should introduce special electricity and gas tariff for textile industry which must be regionally competitive.

Also besides improving law and order and providing unabated gas and electricity supply, the government would have to relax import policy to empower value-added textile industry to get the maximum benefit of GSP plus Status.

Pakistan is the 8th largest exporter of textile products in Asia and this sector contributes 9.5% to the GDP and provides employment to about 40 million workforce of the country.