LAHORE: The Pakistan Ready­made Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Prgmea) has asked the authorities concerned to relax duties on the import of yarn to encourage value addition, reduce the cost of doing business and bridge the gap between production and consumption, said a press release on Monday.

Its demand comes in the wake of the government’s decision to withdraw sales tax and customs duty on the import of cotton to help spinning mills.

The association has requested the Textile Division to submit a summary to the Economic Coordination Com­mit­­tee of the cabinet for duty relaxation on yarn imports.

“The government will have to provide a level playing field to the whole textile chain instead of supporting only yarn manufacturers, which have around 350 units against the value-added sector comprising 10,000 units across the country,” said Prgmea Chief Coordinator Ijaz Khokhar in the press release.

Mr Khokhar said the government is going to facilitate cotton imports despite the fact that around 1.86 million bales of cotton are lying unsold in the country. Therefore, it must remove restrictions on yarn imports too, he added.

“Since the apparel sector has already a very limited production line owing to a lack of latest fabric varieties at the local level, harsh duties are resulting in a significant decline in apparel exports. The apparel industry is already suffering from low productivity due to a shortage of cotton yarn, high energy cost and discriminating import duties on the its raw material,” he said.

He added that high-quality cotton yarn has to be imported for the production of value-added products.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2017