KARACHI: The textile industry on Thursday rejected Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Hafeez Sheikh’s assertion that domestic sales of textiles amount up to Rs1,200 billion per annum.

Speaking at the Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturing Association on Thursday Jawed Bilwani, Zubair Motiwala, Naqi Bari, Rafiq Godial and Shabir Ahmed challenged the finance adviser and asked him to come up with workable calculations which could substantiate his figures.

The industry leaders said that if they take the amount of Rs1,200bn as domestic sale of textiles and divide it with the population of 220 million, it would mean that every Pakistani could spend Rs5,455 annually on clothing.

They further said with average price of textile clothing at Rs700 each, a Pakistani could purchase eight suits per annum from the amount of Rs5,455. How is it possible that every Pakistani (including children) could purchase eight suits annually where 50 per cent of population is below poverty line, they questioned.

They alleged that the PM’s adviser has come up with this figure only to justify the withdrawal of zero-rated facility allowed to export sector.

The leaders claimed that local sales of textiles come to around 15-20pc while export of other sectors comes in the range of 2-5pc.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2019