LAHORE: Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has invited the All-Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) leadership for a meeting in Islamabad on Saturday following a strike call given by the millers for Aug 7.

A commerce ministry official said that the government had taken the Aptma strike call seriously as normally textile tycoons avoid confrontation. However, many textile manufacturers consider the minister’s invitation as a ploy to convince them to withdraw the strike call.

The Aptma delegation would be led by its Chairman S.M. Tanveer. Leaders of Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA), Trade Development Authority of Pakistan Chairman S.M. Muneer and Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) President Mian Mohammad Adrees, and textile body members from Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan will also participate in the meeting.

S.M. Tanveer said that the strike call was the last resort as one-fourth mills have already closed down. “Our members are not prepared to operate the mills on a high power tariff which includes heavy surcharges to cover theft and inefficiencies of the power providers.”

He said the textile exports are now subjected to around 5pc taxes and there is no mechanism to refund those taxes.

This, he said, was not tolerable as industry has become unviable, not only in exports but in the domestic market.

He urged the government to provide level-playing field to textile exporters against the competing economies.

He was hopeful that the government would withdraw the unfair power surcharge and remove other irritants faced by the industry. He warned that if issues are not resolved, the industry may go on an indefinite strike.

An Aptma leader from Karachi told Dawn that their mood was defiant and the government would have to announce concrete actions.

“It will have to do something concrete to protect the $18 billion industry, 10 million jobs and $14bn exports,” he said.

Energy shortages and rising cost of doing business have resulted in stagnation of exports during the past five years that declined to $13.4bn in the last financial year from $13.8bn in 2010-11, a textile manufacturer from Faisalabad said.

“In spite of GSP-Plus, our overall textile exports fell by 1.8 per cent last year from $13.7bn a year earlier,” he said.

“You cannot take advantage of the market access without reducing the cost of your exports when your rivals, like China, India and Bangladesh, are heavily subsidising their textile exporters.”

Another manufacturer said the industry had not invested in new machines and capacity expansion for the last 10 years because of energy shortages, taxes on exports, high energy costs, and lack of government support.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2015

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