ISLAMABAD: Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar here on Saturday constituted a committee to resolve issues of the textile industry.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the All-Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) with the finance minister.

The committee will be headed by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue Haroon Akhtar Khan.

The minister was given a briefing on the current profile of the Pakistani textile industry and its standing in the international market.

The matter regarding sales tax refund would be resolved on priority, Ishaq Dar said, adding that the government had already asked for filing of refund claims by Aug 31 so that the settlement of the claims could be made on priority.

An official announcement said that the delegation drew finance minister’s attention towards the levy of surcharge on electricity bills, settlement of sales tax refunds, removal of anomaly in taxes as well as restraining import of yarn to promote the local industry.

Textile manufacturers claim that energy shortages and rising cost of doing business have resulted in stagnation of exports during the past five years that declined to $13.4bn in the last financial year from $13.8bn in 2010-11.

In spite of GSP-Plus, they said, overall textile exports fell by 1.8 per cent last year from $13.7bn a year earlier.

They have urged the government to provide level-playing field to textile exporters against the competing economies.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2015

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