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Cotton farmers are becoming victims to the conjuring middlemen. With no trace of government procuring centres, the middlemen are exploiting the farmers as per their whims and fancies. The negligence of the officials is not only denting the revenue of the government, but also affecting the lives of the farming community. As a result, almost 500 trucks of cotton from Tandur are being carried to Guntur on regular basis.
Farmers from Yalal, Peddemul, Tandur, Basheerabad cultivate cotton in a large scale. Though the monsoon did not favour, the farmers, however, had hopes that their yields could save them from their debts. But, all their hopes short lived, when the government failed to announce Minimum Support Price (MSP) and to set up procuring centres. Taking the situation to their advantage, some middlemen are directly approaching farmers in villages to purchase cotton. They are only deciding the prices as per their conveniences. The business of the middlemen has been going unabated, even though they don’t posses any permission from the government. It is learnt that about 20 middlemen who formed a syndicate are deciding the prices of cotton as per their wish.
The price of cotton in open market is about Rs 6,300 per quintal. But, the middlemen are offering only 4 to 5 thousand per quintal. They are not giving more than Rs 2,500 per quintal to some farmers by saying that their produce has more humidity. Neither marketing officials nor the people’s representatives have been bothered to care of what’s been happening. It is alleged that the middlemen and the concerned officials colluded on the issue. Even worse, the purchasers are deceiving them by using old weighing machines. Only electronic weighing machines are supposed to be used while procuring, but the middlemen are using old equipment and weighing stones. The weighing method is again adding to loses for the farmers. This is the high time that officials intervened and stopped the exploitation that is not only damaging the farmers, but also the revenue of the government.
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The Muslim weavers in India are for the last more than four years demanding from the Modi government to impose anti-dumping duty on Chinese clothes so as to keep a check on their prices. However, it turned out now that anti-dumping duty on Chinese clothes alone could not have served the interest of weavers in India. For, China has found a new way to bring down the costing of its clothes, that too, to such a level that it would be next to impossible to compete, at least for now.
The new reports that have emerged now suggested that hundreds of thousands of Uighur Muslims who were reported to have been kept in detention centers are forced to work in factories on no or extremely low wages. The clothes and other items thus manufactured in these factories are then exported to international markets on low prices. The documents detail plans for inmates, even those formally released from the camps, to take jobs at factories that work closely with the camps to continue to monitor and control them. The socks, suits, skirts and other goods made by these laborers would be sold in Chinese stores and could trickle into overseas markets, The New York Times said in a report published last week.
While the bulk of clothes and other textile goods manufactured in Xinjiang ends up in domestic and Central Asian markets, some makes its way to the United States and Europe. Badger Sportswear, a company based in North Carolina, last month received a container of polyester knitted T-shirts from Hetian Taida, a company in Xinjiang that was shown on a prime-time state television broadcast promoting the camps, the report added.
The Chinese authorities have rejected the report, saying it “a malicious attack that severely distorts the fact”. However, The New York Times said accounts from the region, satellite images and previously unreported official documents indicate that growing numbers of detainees are being sent to new factories, built inside or near the camps, where inmates have little choice but to accept jobs and follow orders. The result is that, while Uighur Muslims who are pushed into forced labour by local authorities and pay the price of China’s booming economy, in India, Muslim weavers who form a major chunk of the country’s textile industry are forced to sell off their powerlooms on throwaway prices because of cheap clothes dumped into the country’s market from across the border.
India has more than 2 million powerlooms. Out of them, around 2 lakh are modern machines, rest all are plain looms, according to the Textile Commissioner Office Mumbai. Data compiled by Malegaon Industries and Manufacturers Association (MIMA) shows more than 50% of these plain powerlooms are in Bhiwandi and Malegaon – two cities in Maharshtra which are dominated by Muslims whose only source of income is from the powerloom industries. However, since last about five years the textile industry in India is in recession and the worst hit because of the slow down are Muslim weavers. “The powerloom units in Malegaon are famous for their 24×7 working style. But, since June/July this year we are running our units only for 2-3 days in a week”, a weaver, in the business since last 30 years, said while talking to ummid.com.
Situation in Bhiwandi is even worse. In fact, it was for the first time in the history of the city that two weavers committed suicidebecause they were unable to re-pay the bank loan. “Many weavers have sold out their powerlooms and have switched to other business”, a local said.
But, the problem is that the whole economy of the two cities revolves around textiles and the slowdown in the industry impacts every trade and business. Hence, switiching to other trade is neither easy nor a solution. Local weavers say there are various issues that have resulted in the slowdown of the textile industry in India. However, availability of cheap Chinese clothes in the markets remain the major cause.
The government’s textile policy is also strange. It imposes anti-dumping duty on imported synthetic fibres but allows import of cheap Chinese totally unchecked. A demand by the industry to impose similar duty on Chinese clothes have so far been met with deaf ears”, weavers said.
Natural fibres (cotton, wool, silk and flax ramie), man-made fibres (regenerated and synthetic), specialty fibres, natural and blend yarns (cotton, wool, silk and linen /ramie), man-made and blend yarns (regenerated and synthetic), elastic yarns, fancy yarns and specialty yarns – all will be featured at Yarn Expo Spring to be held during March 12-14, 2019.
The fair in Shanghai will take place alongside Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics and three more concurrent fairs. Between 2016 and 2018, Yarn Expo Spring saw increases of 29 per cent and 20.9 per cent in exhibitor and visitor numbers respectively,
Following a year of fluctuating demands and trends in the textile industry, especially in China and the Asia-Pacific region, it’s more important than ever for suppliers to continuously innovate and produce strong products in order to survive in the uncertainty of the recent economic climate. Yarn Expo Spring presents itself as a leading fair for exhibitors to establish their brands, introduce their latest products, and reveal new innovations to their targeted audiences both in China and globally.
“As the demand for functional fabrics continues to increase, we can also see this trend in Yarn Expo,” said Jiang Chang, marketing manager of Hangzhou Gaoxi Technology, China, highlighting just one of the trends evident at last year’s Yarn Expo Spring. “Therefore, the fair helps us to learn about the industry’s developments.”
Yarn Expo is recognised for its diversity of suppliers, meaning that visitors can meet all of their sourcing needs in one place. With more industry buyers than ever sourcing synthetic, fancy and specialty yarns and chemical fibres at the fair, the Fancy Yarn Zone will feature almost 50 prominent yarn suppliers from all around the world. Meanwhile, high-quality natural yarns and fibres can easily be found, including high-end European linen and cotton from countries such as Egypt, India, Turkey and Vietnam, as well as an array of eco-fibres and carbon fibres for visitors seeking sustainable, light-weight materials.
The strength of Yarn Expo is its continuous evaluation of its audience and industry trends. Speaking about the last edition of Yarn Expo Spring, Wendy Wen, senior general manager of Messe Frankfurt (HK) said: “Local buyers were showing strong interest in the offerings from Asian countries such as Indonesia and Korea, while Vietnamese cotton exhibitors reported increased orders from China due to the favourable trade policies between these countries.” The fair responds to visitor interest by presenting an array of high-quality exhibitors from a variety of countries and regions, including China, Egypt, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
What’s more, exhibitors can enjoy a unique opportunity to leverage the fair’s premium business platform, with the four concurrent fairs. From apparel to home furnishings, the entire textile supply chain will gather under one roof for Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics – Spring Edition, Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles – Spring Edition, PH Value and the China International Fashion Fair (CHIC).
The fair will feature natural fibres (cotton, wool, silk and flax / ramie), man-made fibres (regenerated and synthetic), specialty fibres, natural and blend yarns (cotton, wool, silk and linen /ramie), man-made and blend yarns (regenerated and synthetic), elastic yarns, fancy yarns and specialty yarns
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched a support and outreach programme for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector on November 2, 2018. As a part of this programme, the Prime Minister unveiled 12 key initiatives addressing five key aspects for facilitating the sector.
These include access to credit, access to market, technology upgradation, ease of doing business, and a sense of security for employees. MSME support and outreach programme is aimed at synergising the Government’s efforts by bringing together various Central ministries, State governments, lenders and private sector to provide implementable multi-dimensional solutions for MSMEs. MSME support and outreach portal intensively monitors the status of implementation of the programme across 100 districts.
In a bid to boost credit availability to MSMEs, a web portal (www.psbloansin59minutes.com) has been launched through which one can avail loans up to Rs 1 crore in just 59 minutes. The portal will enable principal approval of loans up to Rs 1 crore for MSMEs from Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and 5 public sector banks (PSBs).
Nagpur has been chosen as a priority district under the scheme to be developed as an ‘Agro and Food Processing Hub’ under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI). The proposed MoFPI action plan on this initiative include, among other objectives of the campaign, creating awareness and promoting investment through various MoFPI schemes.
Government of India and SIDBI set up the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) for strengthening credit delivery system and facilitate flow of credit to the MSE sector. Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs), provide skill training and skill up gradation of the rural BPL youth. The TReDS provide the platform to bring MSME sellers, corporate buyers and financiers together. The three Social Security Schemes run by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation.
The women employees are also given the benefits at par and there are special benefits for the employees. Government e-Marketplace (GeM) facilitates on-line procurement of common use goods and services required by various Govt departments/organizations/PSUs.
Expert faculties from different parts of the country will make presentation on ‘Opportunities, challenges and remedial measures in food processing sector for MSMEs’ by Sudhanshu Bohra, PwC, Mumbai; ‘Bankers role in supporting MSMEs’ by Pramod Agrawal, AGM-SME, Bank of India, Lead Bank. Presentation on ‘Trade receivables e-Discounting System (TReDS) for MSMEs’ by Satyajeet Jathar, Receivables Exchange of India Ltd; Certification & Licensing – panel discussion by Neha Aggarwal, Deputy Director, CII and Nisha Kanbargi, Scientist C from BIS; presentation on linking MSMEs on GeM platform and e-commerce platform – Nikhil Patil, Infibeam Avenues, Mumbai.
A series of events will be organised by Joint Coordination Committee comprising of Vidarbha Industries Association (VIA), MIDC Industries Association (MIA), Butibori Manufacturers’ Association (BMA) and Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DICCI, Vidarbha Chapter) from on December 27 2018 from 10 am to 3 pm at VIA Auditorium, Udyog Bhawan, Civil Lines for ‘aspiring entrepreneurs’ in the food sector.
Second session on December 27, 2018 from 3 pm to 7 pm for ‘existing entrepreneurs’ seeking additional knowledge on Government schemes and to interact with relevant departments can reach MIDC Industries Association (MIA Hall), Hingna Industrial Area, Nagpur.
On December 28, Butibori Manufacturers’ Association (BMA), Butibori will be holding full day orientation workshop on MSME support and outreach campaign for Butibori industries from 10 am to 6 pm at BMA, Butibori.
The sessions are free and open to attend for all. For details and registration, interested may contact VIA on 0712-2554090 / 2561211 or MIA on (07104) 236138 or BMA on 07104-265533 or Bank of India which is the Lead Bank on 0712 253 6440.
All members of the associations, industrialists, aspiring entrepreneurs and interested persons are cordially invited to attend the programme in large numbers and take advantage of the Government schemes. This was informed at a press conference jointly organised by Atul Pande, President of VIA; Capt C M Randhir, President of MIA; Nitin Lonkar, President of BMA, Nischay Shelke, President of DICCI- Western India, Gopal Wasnik, President of DICCI; Vidarbha Chapter, Chandrashekhar Shegaonkar, Secretary of MIA; Prasad Joshi, GM of Bank of India and Abhijeet Khandagale, Nodal Officer, Government of India. They have appealed all members of associations, industrialists, aspiring entrepreneurs to attend the workshop.
The RBI has its task cut out as it sets about addressing the sector’s credit and viability concerns
A debate on MSMEs has come alive due to the Centre’s insistence on a regulatory reprieve for the beleaguered sector post GST and post demonetisation. The RBI at its last Board meeting that Urjit Patel chaired, promised to set up a Committee on the MSME sector by the end of this month.
There is an estimate, authenticated by the Centre, that there are around 50 million MSMEs, both registered and unregistered, employing 120 million, second only to agriculture.
Credit crunch
MSMEs contribute 6.11 per cent of manufacturing GDP and 24.6 per cent of services GDP. They also account for 16 per cent of bank lending. Around 8 per cent of credit to manufacturing micro and small enterprises and 13 per cent to medium enterprises are estimated to be gross NPAs.
MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Ageny) and the ‘59-minute loan sanction’ promises enhanced credit reach to the sector with SIDBI in the lead for both. MUDRA helped banks to push the services sector lending below ?5 lakh significantly.
Field studies reveal that MUDRA loans have been used by several banks to swap a good number of failing micro service sector loans. There is also evidence of moral hazard following adverse selection as several enterprises are non-traceable at the location mentioned in the applications.
In the band of ?5-10 lakh the percentage of loans is less than 20 per cent, indicating preference for a risk free portfolio and lack of interest in the manufacturing sector.
The government has put in place e-Invoice, TReDX, Samadhan, GeM to ensure prompt payment of bills from public sector undertakings and central government departments. Even so, the State PSUs and state government departments continue to delay the bills of MSMEs, leading to NPAs.
A procurement policy has been put in place to provide for preferential purchase from MSMEs, without sacrificing the conditions of quality of goods and services supplied to the buyer.
The process of loan disbursal is also cumbersome. Quite a few banks follow a multi-layered approach to lend to the sector and as a result due diligence suffers. The branch that disburses is also expected to monitor and supervise the credit but does not have the time or manpower for that.
There is hardly any communication between the entrepreneur and the credit authority until an irregularity in the account surfaces.
So given declining credit and growing NPAs, the following 12-point Agenda is a way ahead for the RBI panel:
* Thresholds in priority sector portfolio.
* Credit risk assessment of the MSMEs
* Thresholds for declaring the MSMEs as NPAs — 98 per cent of the portfolio in the fold of proprietors/family owned enterprises in the shape of partnerships, have no exit route of the sort facilitated under the IBC code or the Industrial Disputes Act.
* Revival and restructuring of sick enterprises — Innovative institutional interventions like the Industrial Health Clinics in States that carry the highest numbers of enterprises in this category.
* Cluster Development — Additional lending incentives.
* SIDBI’s Role — Review and Redefine for assuming real leadership role.
* The guarantee mechanism in the shape of the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprise (CGTMSE) needs to be reviewed and redefined.
It has a role conflict with SIDBI as the latter is its promoter and at the same time secures its guarantee for the enterprises financed directly by it. CGTMSE premia rates were found to be high by their primary lending institutions and the claim settlement process unacceptably late.
* Role of credit rating agencies and effectiveness of internal credit rating tools.
* Recommendations to the Centre on policy initiatives.
* Digitisation of MSME lending and managing its transition.
* Setting up of Movable Asset Registry — Operational issues and directions.
* Setting up of Public Credit Registry — Roadmap for data integration without sacrificing data
privacy and data security.
Given the cascading effect of the large corporate manufacturing and services enterprises on the MSMEs, their healthy growth is crucial for employment and growth of the manufacturing sector as a whole.
Since MSMEs are still largely debt driven and not equity driven, it is important that access to credit should be easier, cleaner, and faster.
India is preparing a specific strategy for exports to each geography as part of plans to make 2019 a year when outward shipments would start driving the country’s overall economic growth, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu has said.
The minister said India’s exports performance has been “extremely good” in the past 14 months, but he is not fully satisfied as yet and the plans for 2019 also include a special focus on boosting shipments to the African continent and Latin America given huge growth potential there.
He said the Indian exports are growing at a time when the global trade is witnessing worst ever headwinds, countries are fighting at import duty front and there is increasing protectionism and slowdown in demand.
“(But) I am not fully satisfied. I want exports to drive India’s growth. To do that, the situation is very challenging as each country is trying to put their own borders,” Prabhu told PTI in an interview.
Since 2011-12, India’s exports have been hovering at around $300 billion. During 2017-18, the shipments grew by about 10 per cent to $303 billion.
Experts have cautioned that growing trade tensions between the US and China could impact the global trade growth.
Imposition of high import duties by the US this year on certain steel and aluminium products have triggered a trade war kind of situation.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) too has stated that escalating trade tensions and tighter credit market conditions in important markets will slow trade growth in 2019.
“In 2019, we would like to ensure that all measures that we initiated earlier and the new measures get consolidated and 2019 should be a new year for exports. So I am preparing a strategy. For each of the geographies, we will prepare a specific strategy,” Prabhu said.
Elaborating on his plans, the minister said African continent holds huge potential for domestic exporters and there is a need to significantly boost shipments to that region.
Prabhu said his ministry is in process of creating a template for some kind of a free trade agreement with Africa which will take into account the overall difference of level of growth of that continent and the country specific profiles.
Similar plans are there for other regions as well, including for Latin America, he said. Central America, South East Asia, Central Asia and South Asia hold huge potential for domestic exporters, but “our performance is at sub-optimal level” in these regions, he added.
Emphasised on the need to promote value added exports, Prabhu said his ministry is trying to bring Japanese and Korean companies on board to increase outbound shipments of marine products.
He also hoped that the recently announced agri-export policy will help boost exports from the sector to $60 billion in the next five years and $100 billion in the next 10 years.
“This is doable because we are the largest producers of milk and the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables,” he said. The ministry would be drawing a strategy to promote shipments of five categories — plantation crops, meat, fisheries, agriculture and horticulture, he added.
For this, the minister will be meeting all plantation boards, farmers associations and organisations and discuss issues related to every segment.
“We are asking states for product-specific clusters. For example, in Jalgaon (Maharashtra) we are promoting cluster for bananas, and for grapes in Nashik,” he said.
The ministry is also preparing an incentive package for labour intensive sectors like leather to address issues faced by exporters.
“We are preparing a package which will ensure that exporters’ woes are addressed properly. There have been challenges for the export sector over a period of time and one big challenge is credit,” he said.
The ministry is also looking at quality of goods being exported by India as foreign firms are keeping a special tab on this.
Further, Prabhu said as India is one of the major exporter of services like IT and ITeS, the ministry’s strategy will have elements to promote services exports also.
The government has approved an action plan for 12 champion services sectors, including IT, tourism and hospitality, for realising their potential through establishment of a Rs 50 billion dedicated fund.
Commenting on the growth prospects next year, exporters said the government needs to focus on areas like timely refund of Goods and Services tax; adequate availability of affordable credit; extending export duty benefits to more areas like seeds; and interest subsidy to merchant exporters.
“If government will take all these steps in the coming months, we can register 20 per cent growth in exports,” the Federation of Indian Exports Organisation (FIEO) President Ganesh Kumar Gupta said.
Promoting exports helps a country to create jobs, boost manufacturing and earn more foreign exchange.
Industry representatives FE spoke to said the 2016 guidelines allowed cross border trade only through the ‘term ahead’ market and did not allow trading in the more attractive ‘day-ahead’ market.
The government has removed restrictive riders which discouraged neighbouring countries to buy power from India’s spot power markets. Also, it barred plants with Coal India fuel linkage or captive mines from selling power outside India, a move that could help imported coal-based units in the private sector to have a larger pie of the markets in neighbouring countries.
Industry representatives FE spoke to said the 2016 guidelines allowed cross border trade only through the ‘term ahead’ market and did not allow trading in the more attractive ‘day-ahead’ market. The latest guidelines for cross-border electricity trade issued by the power ministry, reviewed by FE, have removed such conditions. However, foreign entities would be required to participate in power exchanges only through Indian power trading entities.
“The new guidelines are far more industry friendly and allow a wider set of generators, using commercial or renewable resource, to export more freely,” said Kameswara Rao, leader, power, PwC India. “It enables larger investments with combined power generation and evacuation facilities, which can lower costs for importing nations.” As reported by FE earlier, independent power producers had asked the power ministry to clarify if fuel sourced from Coal India linkage or captive mines can be used to export power. The clarity was sought after NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam, a wholly owned arm of NTPC, had emerged as the successful bidder in the auction for power supply to Bangladesh.
The Association of Power Producers had said that exporting power using domestic coal would be “hampering domestic consumer interest”. NVVN had won contracts for supply of 300 MW power to Bangladesh till May 2033 from power stations of the DVC. Experts FE spoke to could not immediately clarify if the new guideline would prevent NVVN from supplying electricity to Bangladesh. Notwithstanding anything done for import/export of electricity with neighbouring country(ies) “shall be deemed to have been done or taken under provisions of the latest guidelines and shall continue to be in place till the expiry of the existing contracts,” the document stated.
As much as 7,203 million units (MU) were supplied to Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar in FY18. Bangladesh is the largest buyer of Indian power. Adani Power has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Bangladesh Power Development Board to supply a net capacity of 1,496 MW to the neighbouring country from the firm’s upcoming 1,600 MW imported coal-based plant in Godda, Jharkhand. Sembcorp Gayatri Power, which runs a 1,320 MW imported coal-based power plant in Andhra Pradesh, had received letters of intent from the BPDB to supply 250 MW to the neighbouring nation for 15 years.
Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda recently agreed to make trade among themselves and with other countries cheaper, faster and simpler. In a meeting in Nairobi, representatives of the countries said they would implement trade facilitation reforms including reducing ‘non-tariff barriers’ like burdensome and incompatible product regulations.
The countries are members of the East African Community customs union and common market (EAC). The ministerial meeting took place in parallel with the first UNCTAD Africa eCommerce Week from December 10 to 14, according to an UNCTAD statement.
The EAC move comes after most African countries signed the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCTFA) in March 2018. The AfCFTA envisages establishing an Africa free trade area by building on regional blocs such as the EAC where trading nations already work together. The EAC declaration also aligns with the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement, which entered into force in February 2017.
In the declaration, EAC countries committed to supporting National Trade Facilitation Committees (NTFCs) as the main vehicle for coordinating the implementation of the trade facilitation measures at the national level.
Intra-EAC trade, while low compared to regions outside Africa, is the highest among regional economic communities in Africa at 19.35 per cent of exports.
UNCTAD and TMEA, a non-profit organization established in 2010 to support the growth of regional and international trade in East Africa, also renewed their cooperation agreement for 2019–2021. They decided to continue to work on trade facilitation, trade portals, enquiry points, trade and gender issues, and to explore working in other fields such as transport.
LAHORE/KARACHI: Textile industry on Wednesday urged the government to settle more than Rs100 billion in outstanding sales tax refunds, which are causing serious liquidity crunch for manufacturers and exporters.
Ali Ahsan, chairman of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association said current and deferred sales tax refunds are lying pending at various large taxpayer units (LTUs) and regional tax offices (RTOs) mainly due to the cross-matching of invoices.
“The FBR (Federal Board of Revenue) should issue directions to all the LTUs and the RTOs for expeditious processing of refunds and subsequent payments against the refund payment orders issued in order to save industry facing the threat of being declared as defaulter,” Ahsan said in a statement.
Banks are already reluctant to revise (financing) limits of companies as per the increased cotton rates.” Textile exporters said the government has not released a single rupee on account of duty drawback of taxes (DDT) and drawback of local taxes and levies (DLTL) since it came into power four months back.
Value-added textile exporters said the previous government released Rs32.18 billion on account of payment of DDT under the Prime Minister’s Trade Enhancement Package and DLTL claims under the textile policies of 2009/14 and 2014/19.
“The sitting government has not released a single rupee till date,” Jawed Bilwani, central chairman of Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PHMA) said in a separate statement.
“The new government has taken over charge for more than four months (and)
is busy in lip service, verbal announcements and photo sessions but no practical steps and measures have been taken yet to release the amount of claims of DDT and DLTL.”
Textile exports remained flat at $5.506 billion during the first five months of the current fiscal year of 2018/19 as the value-added sector couldn’t perform up to the mark despite constant rupee devaluation against the US dollar. Rupee has lost a quarter of its value against the US dollar since December last year.
Bilwani said huge amount of exporters’ liquidity of billions of rupees in DDT and DLTL has been stuck with the government, causing great sufferings to the already-burdened exporters who couldn’t understand “how to make both ends meet and such an alarming situation will ruin the export business of the value-added textile exporters”.
“The government has not given any firm commitment to release DDT and DLTL claims,” he added. PHMA’s chairman further said billions of rupees in sales tax refund, customs rebates and withholding tax claims of exporters are also pending with the government.
“Value-added textile export sector is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy (and) earns major amount of foreign exchange and revenue for the government,” he added. “Besides, the sector is also labour-intensive and largest employment provider and generator. Value-added textile exporters are battling for their survival in the global market due to costly inputs and high cost of manufacturing.”
Bilwani demanded of the government to help the industry overcome the challenges, provide an enabling business environment and create a level-playing field for textile exporters. “It is crucial that the government should immediately release payment against DDT and DLTL claims of textile exporters and accord priority to resolve the issues of textile exporters.”
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Argentine on Wednesday held talks in Islamabad to discuss ways to boost trade ties and to expand cooperation in diverse fields.
Pakistani delegation was headed by Secretary Commerce Younus Dagha while the Argentinean delegation was led by its ambassador to Pakistan Rodolfo Jose Martin Saravia in the meeting.
Talking to journalists, Younus Dagha said that Pakistan and Argentine have two hundred million dollars of annual bilateral trade which could be enhanced up to eight million dollars.
Both the delegations agreed to hold talks next year to finalize the free trade agreements, he said and added that the agreements will help reduce the trade deficit.
Pakistan’s export in textile, medicine and information communication will increase after the agreements with Argentina, said the secretary commerce.
Meanwhile Argentinean envoy Rodolfo Jose Martin Saravia offered Pakistan to take advantage of their expertise in the fields of livestock, food and meet processing technology. He said that they wanted to expand cooperation with Pakistan in the fields of chemicals and mining.
