‘Textile industry to close down’

LAHORE
All Pakistan Textile Mills Association Chairman S. M. Tanveer has said that a meeting of the general body of Association has decided to close down the textile industry of Pakistan voluntarily.
“An emergent general body meeting has deliberated on the adverse circumstances and found it unfeasible to incur losses by operating mills partially,” he added. He said the member mills had decided on their own to put their operations off voluntarily because of the viability issue. “We do not want confrontation with the government; therefore, we are closing down mills voluntarily,” he said. The cost of doing business in textile industry has hit through the roof. Meanwhile, the burden of incidental taxes, provincial cess, system inefficiencies and punitive withholding tax regime has added fuel to the fire. “Thus, the business of textile industry has become unviable in Pakistan,” he said.
He said the government had not brought the unorganised sectors into tax net and billing the textile industry. All these punitive measures had hit the sustainability of textile industry in Pakistan.