FAISALABAD: Appreciation of the rupee against the US dollar has not benefited entrepreneurs as prices of raw material are still high and markup rates are also unchanged.

Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Vice-President Munawar Mughal told Dawn the depreciation of US dollar had cost the exporters manifold owing to the poor strategy. He said cosmetic measures had been taken to control the value of dollar and ground realities were not changed as petroleum prices were still high, no relief had been extended to exporters or common man.

“The government has been claiming that dollar was available at Rs98, however, the reality is that dollar is not available in the open market. People have to get dollar through their connections against Rs101.”

Rana Arif Tauseef, a textile exporter of Faisalabad, said the government had improved the rupee value within one week, resulting in about Rs7 to Rs8 depreciation in the value of dollar. However, he said, it was hard to understand how the government had done this as nothing had changed for the exporters who were purchasing the raw material at exorbitant rates.

India and China had also made adjustments of their currencies with US dollar and they had provided cushion to their exporters, enabling them to remain competitive in the international market, said former FPCCI Vice-President Azhar Majeed. He said Pakistani exporters had suffered huge losses because of the dollar depreciation, however, nothing had been done by the government for the exporters.

Muzamal Saleem, a soap exporter, was much perturbed because of rapid depreciation of US dollar that led to closure of his factory.

“I had been running my factory and exporting products to Afghanistan despite facing power and gas crisis. However, dollars’ depreciation proved a last nail in the coffin of my business.” He said buyers in Afghanistan had also stopped purchasing soap from Pakistan because of uncertainty regarding dollar’s value.

Pakistan Textile Exporters Association Chairman Ilyas Mehmood Sheikh said the government had decreased the value of dollar without consulting the stakeholders. He said rupee appreciation had not given any benefit to exporters as interest rates had not decreased.

A sudden surge of around 12 to 15pc in rupee value against US dollar has disturbed the business cycle of textile exporters who get export payments after 90-120 days, he said.