PRGMEA urges for steps to promote industrialisation in budget proposal

LAHORE: The Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) in its budget proposals for 2018-19 has called for various steps to promote industrialisation and enhance exports.

PRGMEA urged for increasing ease of doing business, lowering cost of production, paying early refunds to solve liquidity crunch, relaxing import policy for industrial raw material, and equalising the energy tariff across the country, a statement said on Monday.

The association’s senior vice chairman Sheikh Luqman Amin said Pakistan was at 147 out of 190 countries on the global ranking of doing business mainly due to bureaucratic hurdles. He said various provincial departments, including EOBI, Social Security, Women Welfare, Environment Department etc were playing a negative role and treating the manufacturers and exporters like criminals.

The official said Pakistan's core issue was the high cost of doing business, which the government needed to bring down to bring the export industry at par with global competitors. Amin said all the stuck-up claims, including DLTL, DDT, customs rebates, and sales tax rebates, should be released.

He asked the government to work on a fast track plan to address energy issues. Priority should be given to the export-oriented garments sector, which was the highest value-added link in the entire textile value chain. Gas price disparity among provinces is also a source of concern for the textile industry.

Requesting duty free import of G3 and G4 type fabric for re-export of garments, the senior vice chairman said the government should introduce a liberal import policy for raw materials for re-export like duty-free import of fabrics and accessories which are not being manufactured in Pakistan.

“We request that import of fabric be allowed under a simple and easy procedure instead of DTRE, which is very complicated as only two percent of the exporters can avail importing under the DTRE facility,” he added.

PRGMEA has also appealed for duty-free yarn import to encourage value-addition. The government should review its textile policy to remove hurdles hindering exports and to enable the textile sector to attain the targets, it proposed.

The PRGMEA also asked the government to introduce back to back LC system in Pakistan on the pattern of Bangladesh. Rejecting the State Bank of Pakistan procedure for the new schemes of PM Package, PRGMEA asked SBP not to discriminate in disbursement of funds in the small cities of Pakistan.

PRGMEA proposed that special lending rates should be given to the garment sector. All existing loans included (part 1 and 2) should be on zero mark-up with allocation on total export performance. The banks should facilitate businesses through lending money on easy terms and conditions.

PRGMEA urged the government to continue the sales tax zero-rating facility to five export-oriented sectors in the upcoming federal budget 2018-19 to revive industrial viability. It has been suggested that the zero-rating should be extended to packing material as well.