Long-term policy stressed for revival of textile industry

MULTAN: Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Fareed Mughis Sheikh Tuesday urged the government to reduce cost of doing business in textile and clothing sector.
Talking to reporters, the MCCI president said if the textile industry failed in competing in the global market, the country would go bankrupt and millions of the people would become jobless.
He said unemployment of textile workers is on the rise in Punjab because of delay in the announcement of textile package by the government.He said a long term textile policy must be announced for the revival of textile industry.
He said over two dozen mills have been totally closed down in the province while a large number of mills have reduced their operations to one or two shifts, which has left thousands of textile workers jobless.
He said the exports data of last four months showed a significant decline in textile exports but the government was delaying the announcement of textile package since August.“So much so, meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also proved useless, as he had given a commitment of resolving textile industry issues in September,” he maintained.
The MCCI president lamented that the month of November is near to an end but there is no clue of any textile package by the government. “The textile workers are losing their jobs one after another and the government is still considering the textile package,” he argued. He said “MCCI recommend that textile industry should be declared as a ‘priority’ sector for application of a separate lower gas tariff in line with rates prevailing in Bangladesh.” He said that power tariffs prevailing in the country were also on higher side and needed to be rationalized.
The government should also devise a strategy to bring cost of furnace oil-based generation on a par with the with gas generation.The MCCI president said: “Textile industry of Punjab, which is about 70 per cent of total textile of Pakistan, is facing serious viability issues due to unprecedented energy cuts whereas industries in other provinces are being provided gas supply on continuous basis throughout the year,” he added.
Quoting figures, he stated that during 2010, gas supply was above 73 pc available on average, however, this year the availability has come down to only 25 pc, which has further reduced to 16.67 pc recently by SNGPL.