FAISALABAD: The volume of Indian yarn dumping has quadrupled during July to December 2014, setting alarm bells ringing for the local industry.

Spinners claim that the dumping volume has surged to Rs15.8 billion now from Rs4.2 billion in the corresponding period last year.

They apprehend that billions of rupees worth of spinning business will be ruined if the government does not impose duty on dumping of Indian yarn in Pakistan.

However, Federal Textile Minister Abbas Khan Afridi says the dumping of Indian yarn is not an issue of the country. “Our issue is the availability of energy,” he says.

Pakistan Yarn Merchants Association Zonal Chairman Muhammad Akram Pasha says the Indian traders have been dumping 25,000 tons of cotton and man-made yarn yearly. He says India is trying to ‘hit’ the Pakistani yarn market and spinning sector by dumping its heavily subsidised products.

He says the government must impose 15 per cent regulatory duty on imports of cotton yarn from India just like it has been clamping anti-dumping duties on imports of chemicals, and other items from various countries.

The imposition of the duty will protect the local yarn business, the value-added industry chain and allied business suppliers enabling the exporters to earn much-needed forex, Pasha says.

An industrialist requesting anonymity has told Dawn that the textile minister lacks vision to understand how India has been hitting the spinning sector of Pakistan by dumping millions of yarn bags annually.

Claim dumping has quadrupled

He says a briefing had been given to the minister a couple of days back with a request to pursue the matter at the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) meeting so that duty could be imposed on the Indian yarn.

Instead of convincing the ECC members, he claims the minister had started complaining about some close associates of the rulers.

Adnan Zahid Butt, a yarn dealer, says demand for the imposition of the duty has been raised by various business and industry circles for many months but the government seems to be least bothered about it.

He has urged the government to take stock of the situation and protect the local spinning segment and its allied businesses.

A spinning mills owner says: “We consider India our arch rival. Just look what India is doing to protect its industry and what benefits its government is extending to its exporters. They have imposed a heavy duty on Pakistani yarn.”

He says the textile minister and his ministry are in slumber and without any reason have objected to imposition of 10pc duty on import of Indian yarn.

He claims except the minister all ECC members were in favour of imposition of duty.

Talking to this correspondent, the minister says the major issue for the textile sector is availability of energy rather than imposition of duty on the Indian yarn. “The textile exports have jumped 12 to 13pc during two months when the energy was available and the spinning sector will have no issue when gas and electricity will again be available for the industry.”

Published in Dawn January 26th , 2015

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