Govt urged to address challenges to export sector

FAISALABAD: The Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) has urged the government to address the challenges in export sector as issues, including stuck up liquidity, high priced energy inputs and imposition of duties and taxes on inputs/raw materials, are adversely impacting production.

In a statement here, PTEA chairman Khurram Mukhtar said that global markets were wide open and Pakistan could achieve significant increase in exports by encouraging investment in addition to enhancing competitiveness. He said that extreme cash flow crunch had squeezed the financial streams and unavailability of sustainable energy package had increased the production cost while levy of anti-dumping duty on basic raw materials and withdrawal of exemption of sales tax and FED on locally procured input goods had disrupted the supply chain and slowed down the export pace.

Elaborating the situation, the PTEA chairman said that tax refunds around Rs170 billion belonging to textile exporters had already halted in refund regime, whereas huge refund bill for July had also been added. Furthermore, refunds against provincial sales tax had been pending since 2013, creating extreme financial stress and the exporters were unable to accelerate industrial growth and make significant increase in exports, he added.

He said that mechanism for promissory notes issued against sales tax refunds through the Central Depository Committee (CDC) had not yet been defined, whereas the income tax bond legislation had been done, but the refund cases were not being processed.