Pakistanis use 28pc of domestic textiles

LAHORE: Pakistan’s total fibre consumption of 10 kilogram per capita includes 2.80kg/capita of domestic produce and 7.20kg/capita of imports and smuggled items, a textile business leader said on Friday.
All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) Group Leader Gohar Ejaz blamed this on smuggling, under invoicing and wrong declaration of goods.
“This imbalance in domestic use of Pakistani fibre is not due to quality, but due to engineered lowered cost of imported textile and clothing.”
He said creditable textile consultants Girzi estimated 10kg/capita fibre consumption in the country. He said as per an Aptma analysis, out of the total 3,032 million kilogram fibre/yarn produced in Pakistan 2,528 million kilogram was exported annually.
Speaking of the meagre local market, Ejaz said it defies logic that despite exporting textiles and clothing to most developed regions of the globe, Pakistani textiles hardly have a 28 percent share in the domestic market.
The Aptma leader said the country is among those exporting low cost knitwear and readymade garments. Out of the remaining 7.20kg/capita consumption, only 1.4kg or 252 million kilogram equivalent of clothing is officially imported into Pakistan. Though all experts are convinced that these imports are under invoiced, still “we accept official exports as genuine penetration of efficient clothing producers in our market”.
Gohar said the consumption of imported worn cloth in Pakistan comes to around 403 million kilogram or 2.3kg/capita, whereas India only imports 100 million kilogram of used clothes.
He said a cursory look at the imported worn clothing consignments would reveal they contain many stitched lots of new apparel and unstitched fibres that are sold openly in the market.
Mens shirt fabric with lining is neither produced in Pakistan nor its import recorded. Still, he added Pakistani stitched gents shirts with lined fabric are openly produced and retailed in Pakistan.
Aptma Chairman SM Tanveer said that the Indian textile industry has the ability to absorb sudden decline in exports of textiles and clothing because 60 percent of all fibre produced in India is consumed domestically. He regretted that government has failed to protect domestic commerce.
Citing smuggling and under invoicing as one of the reasons hurting the local industry, he said that various other sectors, including ceramic tile producers, artificial leather manufacturers, tyre manufacturers, and auto parts manufacturers were also suffering from the menace.
According to Tanveer, the impact of smuggling is worth $3.3 billion annually.
He said the major route of smuggling fabric and clothing is Afghan Transit Trade (ATT), while garment smuggling is done by “khaipeas” that shuttle between Thailand-Singapore-Indonesia and Pakistani airports. Customs could cordon off some major markets and demand the import invoices of garments displayed in the shops to tackle this problem. He said smuggled goods should be confiscated and destroyed just like narcotics to eliminate this menace.
Tanveer said according to Aptma study 640 million kilogram of fibre was smuggled into Pakistan via the ATT and other sources.
This, he added was equivalent to 3.18kg/capita. If Pakistani textiles are allowed to capture the entire domestic demand it would almost double the production and add 2.5 million jobs.
He said that annual losses to the textile chain due to smuggling and worn clothing malpractices was equivalent to Rs700 billion per annum.