LAHORE - The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) chairman Syed Ali Ahsan has appreciated the government for notifying the provision of electricity at Rs7.50 cents/kWh to the export-oriented industry in Punjab. Earlier, the industry was getting power supply at Rs14 cents/kWh.
He said this step will help for revival and growth of the textile industry and the industry is committed to achieve targets of increasing exports to $28 billion textile and clothing exports, creation of 6 million direct jobs and $1.4 billion new investment per annum uptil 2023-24.
He said the time has come for the formulation of a long term export-led growth policy and its implementation in letter and spirit unlike the previous policies which remained unmet and only 15 percent implementation of it was made possible.
He said there is an immediate need of removal of upfront incidentals on import of raw materials short for industry consumption, i.e., cotton and polyester staple fibre, release of all outstanding refunds of sales Tax and DLTL etc. and enablers for investment for the installation of greenfield and technology up gradation projects.
He added that policy implementation should be the focus of the economic managers of the country that would enable the industry and exports to grow at more than 10-15 percent per annum without interruption and yield precious foreign exchange to mitigate trade deficit.
He said the industry has regained confidence with the positive response from the government towards its demands and is poised to recapture its lost share in the global marketplace in the days to come.
APP adds from Karachi: Former chairman and founder member of Pakistan Weaving Mills Association (PWMA) Asif Siddiq on Wednesday hailed the new gas and electricity rates for textile sector.
In a statement, he said announcement of the new gas and electricity rates will help establish new small and medium weaving units across the country and promotion of exports.
He said that new units should be encouraged even more to further boost exports.
“Our existing members have bought land for expansion after the announcement of the policy but the attitude of the bureaucracy is not good in implementing the new policy initiatives taken by the new government”, he added.
He appealed the authorities concerned to remove the issues in way of implementation of new initiatives.