KARACHI, April 16: Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association Central Chairman Aslam Karsaz has said that a large number of hosiery, knitwear and readymade garment units have closed down since the start of “free trade regime” from January 1, 2005.
In a statement issued here on Saturday, he said that the international community at large was feeling the pinch of “free trade” within three months of the start of quota-free regime. “The universal law is very simple ‘survival of the fittest’. This means that countries which actively support and promote their export business will win and those which lag behind will simply fade out.”
He said that buying pattern emerging in the world was to procure from the cheapest and best source. “Pakistan being weak on all accounts including raw materials with high cost of inputs like electricity, gas, water etc., and low labour efficiency stands no where to keep its market share,” he added.
Karsaz said that the industry had to face multiple government agencies in the name of labour, industrial, commercial and fiscal laws and the entrepreneurs had to keep taking care of such departments.
He said that the incentives given by other countries to their industries were of both direct and indirect nature which helped in lowering the production cost but in Pakistan the industry was overburdened with charges, taxes, and duties at various stages with influx of government officials every now and then.
“The infrastructure is never up to the international standards and can not comply with EU or North American standards,” he added.
The PHMA chief said that both India and China in order to capture world market had given facilities to their exporters including higher rebates, payments in the name of technology development, ensuring availability of cheap raw materials and utilities and also provision of quality water and environment friendly waste disposal systems.
He was critical of the fact that the State Bank acted too late to harness the inflation, which is again increasing the production cost, further the central bank was also increasing the export finance rate to make life more miserable for exporters.
The government was doing nothing to pacify the European Union on the GSP plus issue and a meagre relief of 6 per cent by the ECC spoke volumes about the lack of seriousness of the government.
Even such matter which the government could easily act up on such as “zero rated” exports regime, provision of level-paying field for exporters against countries like China, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, he lamented.
He demanded an urgent rebate relief of at least 10 per cent to the industry and stoppage of threatening visits of the government functionaries and officials and allowing the business community to enjoy a hassle and torture free working environment.
He asked for dialogues to assess all the issues related to both direct and indirect exporters to “energize and vitalize the supply chain,” in the best interest of the country. Mr Karsaz stressed upon the need for a “target oriented policy approach” to put the business back on track.
