KARACHI, June 26: Senate Standing Committee on Finance Chairman Ahmed Ali assured exporters of value-added textile on Thursday that the Research and Development (R&D) support would continue but the government was presently working to bring some changes to check misuse of the facility.

Speaking at a luncheon meeting organised by the Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association (PHMA), he said that the R&D would be paid as per ministry of commerce SRO 2005, which has fixed timeframe up to June 30, 2008.

Ahmed Ali informed the exporters that he had held talks with the State Bank governor on the issue of cutting timeframe to June 25, 2008 for availing R&D facility. He said that during the meeting Dr Shamshad Akhtar called the finance secretary, who assured her to look into the matter.

However, the senator said that the government had decided in principle to reduce allocation for R&D and in order to check its misuse it was developing a mechanism based on slabs. He further said that as per his knowledge exports up to $1 million would get R/D at 3 per cent, exports from $10 to $50 million at 6 per cent and exports above $50 million at 9 per cent.

Ahmed Ali appreciated PHMA Chairman Javed Bilwani’s suggestion that the R&D support should be given to all and instead the government should fix its eligibility to exports meant for the developed countries, where exporters have to face quality conscious consumers.

Normally, high-priced textile goods do not face much competition, therefore, the R&D support should be given on medium and low-priced goods, which are in more demand and face tough competition in the world market.

He also suggested that there should be capping of price for textile goods, which should be carried out at national average price.