KARACHI, March 24: Textile Industry Minister Mushtaq Ali Cheema has said that the decision on duty-free import of textile accessories will be taken after reviewing the proposals of the local manufacturers.

In a meeting with textile accessories manufacturers on Saturday at Faisalabad, the minister said that the government would not hurt the local industry while taking any decision for the revival of textile sector.

Giving details of the meeting, Chairman F.B. Area Association of Trade and Industry (FBATI) Masroor Ahmed Alvi told Dawn from Faislabad that the textile minister asked the accessory makers to bring their proposals so that the ministry could discuss at length the issue of duty-free import of accessories.

The minister was also apprised that import duty on raw materials was 25 per cent and if finished products find their way into the local market at zero rated then the local industry would collapse.

The minister also asked the manufacturers to send their suggestions on this issue.

The local industry fears that in case duty-free import of accessories is allowed then the commercial importers will flood the market with sub-standard accessories, thus resulting in closing down of local units besides rendering thousands of people jobless.

Meanwhile, founder chairman of Pakistan Leather Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Plgmea) Fawad Ijaz Khan strongly refuted the claim of the Garment Accessories Manufacturers that over 90 per cent accessories were being manufactured locally.

The quality of most of locally-produced garment accessories was below internationally acceptable standards and therefore most of leather garment manufacturers had to either import these accessories directly or buy imported accessories from local market.

“The main accessory being imported for leather garments is zipper. The leather garment manufactures are importing zippers from YKK plants in Hong Kong, Singapore or China. However, YKK is putting up a manufacturing plant in Export Processing Zone in Karachi which will become operational before the end of this year,” he explained.

Fawad said that a small percentage of labels and elastics were bought from the local market.

“Currently most of leather garment buyers are big departmental stores or fashion stores. They direct our exporters to import these labels/hang tags, etc., from the designated suppliers in Hong Kong or China for maintaining consistency since they are buying all over the world,” he said.

He further said that Plgmea had also given a proposal to the CBR and Ministry of Commerce to allow 5 per cent blanket permission for duty-free import of accessories by leather garment exporters according to their export performance. “Alternatively the government should zero-rate the customs duty on import of all types of accessories”.He elaborated that it was not feasible for most leather garments exporters to import accessories under temporary importation regimes of SRO 1065, Manufacturing Bond SRO 450 or DTRE Scheme.