PAKISTAN: No Support for the Textile Industry
The government in the federal budget for 2008-09 has not allocated a single penny for the ailing textile sector to boost dwindling exports. The textile sector, the darling of every successive governments and accounting for 57 per cent of total exports, performed poorly as its exports fell 2.5 per cent mainly because…
Egytex News Desk
Egytex
The support was later extended beyond the stipulated period of one year and also covered home textile, dyed and printed fabrics. The sector has so far received a cash subsidy of Rs34 billion in the form of research & development facility. The R&D support, contingent upon export performance, is prohibited under the World Trade Organization agreement on subsidies and countervailing measures, hence the scheme cannot be continued.
The Economic Survey 2007-08, while giving first nine months' performance of the sector, clearly depicted poor performance of textile products. Except for raw cotton, knitwear, made-up articles and other textile materials, the rest of the products showed a negative growth.
The textile ministry, submitted a proposal to allocate Rs30 billion under the head of additional duty drawback for the sector, but the committee scrapped the scheme, saying the sector did not deserve it.
Source: The News.com
From the Egytex news archive, first published on 11 June 2008. Figures and names are as reported at the time.
