‘Govt indifferent to textile sector’s woes’

LAHORE: The new textile policy 2014-19 has not seen daylight despite eight months of current fiscal, reflecting lack of interest of the federal government in promoting and protecting textile industry, said a textile leader on Tuesday.
SM Tanveer, chairman of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) said the delay in announcement of the textile policy further suggests that the present government is not different from the previous one, which allocated Rs180 billion in textile policy 2009-14 and disbursed only Rs28 billion.
He was addressing a joint press conference along with group leader APTMA Gohar Ejaz. Tanveer said the proposed textile policy for 2014-19 speaks about allocation of Rs60 billion, which is a drop in the ocean and added that the government should enhance it to at least Rs200 billion.
The textile industry is facing constraints, such as pending sales and income taxes refunds of the industry swelled to Rs20 billion.
Ejaz said the overloaded subsidies for textile industry in India have made Pakistan’s textile industry uncompetitive.
He deplored that the weaving industry has been closed down by half due to flooding of imported/smuggled cloth from regional countries.