‘Govt failed in increasing national exports’

SIALKOT: Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) president Kh Masood Akhtar, Pakistan Readymade Garments Association chairman Ejaz Ahmed Khokhar and others have said that the government has failed in taking steps for the increase in national exports.

They said this while addressing a press conference at the SCCI along with the representatives of scores of other trade bodies on Monday. SCCI SVP Waqas Akram Awan, Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association chairman Dr Khurram Anwar Khawaja, Mian Khalilur Rehman, Malik Ashraf, Ayub Khan, Ch Muhammad Ijaz, Rana Naseer Ahmed, Hassan Ali Bhatti, Sohail Raza Dhodhi and others were also present. They added that it was quite ironic that the rulers were blindly following the anti-public dictations of the International Monitory Fund (IMF) instead of taking sincere measures to reduce the woes and problems of the commoners.

They said that the people of Pakistan had voted for the current rulers and not for the IMF. They urged upon the government not to abolish the facility of zero-rated regime under SRO 1125 in the upcoming annual budget 2019-20 as it would badly hit the already crises-ridden export industry of the country. It would particularly affect the small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) of Sialkot, they lamented. They said that the export industry of the country despite scores of serious challenges was striving hard to sustain and contribute towards economic growth of the country and zero-rated regime was playing a key role in this regard. They opined that the withdrawal of zero-rated regime would negate the Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision of boosting exports and improving the ease of doing business ranking and would crush the SMEs sector. They said that the government had failed in making any efficient mechanism for the urgent reimbursement of the export refund claims of the industrialists worth Rs 2 billion, which were pending for the last three years. They said that the government’s scheme to pay refund claims through promissory notes of a period of three years was quite slow and ineffective. They said that ever increasing prices of gas and electricity, heavy federal, provincial and local taxes and many other problems had caused serious threats to the survival of the industry and hampered its ability to compete in the region and at the international level. They threatened to observe ‘zero export day’ in Sialkot as a protest if the government withdraws SRO 1125. They also announced to make a joint strategy to launch a countrywide protest with the coordination of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), other chambers and trade bodies in the country.