LAHORE: The Pakistan Ready­­made Garment Manu­facturers and Exporters Association (Prgmea) on Monday criticised the State Bank of Pakistan for creating panic among exporters by revising the calculation method for Drawback of Local Taxes and Levies (DLTL) Scheme.

In a press release issued on Monday, Prgmea Chief Co­­ordinator Ijaz Khokhar said the central bank’s April 19 circular ‘FEOD/7846/DLTL/2016’ comes at a time when full payment is due and exporters have submitted their final claims after a lengthy process of paperwork.

“We have been notified that the calculations of the claim be revised to US dollars and increase in sales will be calculated on the basis of yearly average rates,” the release said.

“Revising the exchange rate of calculation for DLTL disbursement is giving an impression that the government is not serious about payments,” the release added.

Mr Khokhar said revision in the method of calculating DLTL claims would require additional paper work, fresh certificates/undertaking and re-verification of the claims by the Ministry of Textiles.

PRGMEA urged Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to personally intervene and play a role in early processing of exporters’ claims otherwise the association would approach the courts against the ‘illogical’ circular.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd , 2016