July 25, 2002	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 14,1423

FAISALABAD, July 24: The exporters have expressed their inability to achieve newly set target of 10.34 billion dollars as the new trade policy lacks dynamic and forward looking approach and ignores the ground realities in addition to removing the chronic faults in export regime.

Expressing these views in a joint press conference here Wednesday Mian Muhammad Latif chairman, All Pakistan Cloth Exporters Association and Mumtaz Ali Cheema chairman Faisalabad Dry Port Trust said that the trade policy has given no direct incentive to pull the exporters out of present crisis.

Elaborating, they pointed out that compulsory rebate has been withdrawn in the early years. Duty draw back rates have been slashed recently and are gradually being phased out. The sale tax regime has been imposed on the exporters without registering the suppliers and the traders.

Furthermore, the condition of same state goods exports has been imposed without ensuring the registration of manufacturers and processors of the ancillary industry, they said.

As a consequence of all these shortcomings, the exporters have been over burdened with formalities and they have been unable to claim their export refunds in full. Resultantly, huge amount of exports has been blocked in the sale tax refund system and exporters are facing liquidity crunch and are not in a position to book new orders.

Highlighting the hardships of exporters regarding sale tax refund, Mian Muhammad Latif said that under the rules, the gold category exporters were entitled to refund within 72 hours while non gold category exporters refund was to be fully settled within 30 days.

But the situation on ground in Faisalabad is that gold category exporters refund is 2 months in arrears, while the non gold category exporters are yet to get their refunds for the last 6 months. In view of the tight position, the exporter feels themselves unable to export anymore.

The APCEA chairman pointed out that last year, president Musharraf had specially allocated Rs1 billion to clear the arrears of sale tax refund, which had somewhat eased the situation. The same treatment was required once again to defuse the prevailing crisis, he added.

Mian Muhammad Latif said that the exporters were not asking for any incentives from the government but wanted the government to implement and act upon its own rules and regulations.

The APCEA chairman was appreciative of the positive approach of finance and commerce ministers and governor State Bank for maintaining financial stability in the country. However, the exporters have been hit hard by depreciation of dollar and the profitability in exports has been eroded due to fluctuations in the exchange rate, he said.