KARACHI: A leading tile manufacturer of Pakistan has urged the government to curb smuggling as it was hurting the domestic industry along with the high cost of doing business.
Shabbir Tiles and Ceramics Limited (STCL) Chief Executive Officer Masood Jaffery said, “The government needs to curb smuggling of Iranian tiles in the country, which are not only hurting local manufacturers but hitting government revenues as well.”
He was talking to a group of journalists about the current business environment in the industry.
Jaffery said they were producing high quality products despite numerous challenges. “Stile is tiling all Pakistan - from homeowner to major projects including historical Gurdwara in Kartarpur, all the major metro lines including Orange line and Green line etc.”
He added that they were the only tile manufacturer in Pakistan which was producing genuine porcelain tiles, while they were also the only company certified on ISO quality standards by one of the world’s biggest tile testing laboratories Centro Ceramico, Italy.
Jaffery said the company required support from the government with regards to reduction in high energy and other input costs.
“In order to become more competitive against the imported tiles, the local tile industry needs reduced energy and input costs.”
He informed that the direct and indirect employment size of the local tile market was over 50,000.
He urged the government to provide a level playing field to all the tiles manufacturers in order to increase competitiveness, create job opportunities, and bring in investment from new and existing players alike. New players, coming to the special economic zone, were getting 10 years tax benefit, whereas existing players were not getting any tax benefit.
He said competition in the industry would be good for improving the quality of local products, while it would also give more bargaining power and choice to the consumers.
Masood said that their main raw material clay was only around 25-35 percent of the total cost, whereas other major components were labour, energy and transportation.