PAKISTAN: Textile Exports Need Special Attention
The new government will have to rely on textile exports to narrow down the burgeoning trade deficit, at least in the short term, the country’s apex trade body says in a report. The previous trade strategy focusing on import substitution as a way to control the deficit has proved futile in an era ruled by free trade…
Egytex News Desk
Egytex
While there is a need to diversify the base of exportable goods through broad policy initiatives, FPCCI said, for now the country will have to depend on traditional textile sector, which has been badly ignored in past fiscal and monetary policies. Textile products including cotton cloth, cotton yarn, knitwear, bed wear and readymade garments made up 70 per cent of total export receipts in 2006-07, according to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). Though textile exports have done relatively well in current fiscal year, businessmen feel they could have done better with the government support.
Thus, in its recommendations, FPCCI proposed but not for the first time that basic raw material used for production of value-added goods should be exempted from taxes. Rather, duties should be imposed on import of luxury items like cars, it said. It has also recommended that cost of utilities should be cut by 25 per cent for export-oriented industries. But another suggestion against further tightening of monetary policy might be hard for the government to comply with, at a time when inflation is rising in double digits.
Source: YarnsandFibres.com
From the Egytex news archive, first published on 20 May 2008. Figures and names are as reported at the time.
