Cut interest rate to boost bedwear exports: PBEA

12 Dec '12

2 min read

Pakistan Bedwear Exporters Association (PBEA) has urged the Government to reduce interest rate (mark-up rate) and raw material prices to help domestic producers better compete with leading competitors like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China and India, and to boost the country’s bedwear exports.

Addressing a joint press conference with Naqi Bari, Chief Executive, Bari Textile Mills Pvt Ltd. and Shabbier Ahmed of All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association, PBEA Chairman Zain Bashir expressed concern over the fall witnessed in bedwear exports during the current year. He said bedwear exports have plummeted from over US$ 2 billion in 2005-06 to US$ 1.7 billion in 2012.

Mr. Bashir said that if proper support would have been extended to domestic textile exporters, they would have grown significantly over the past six years.

He said textile industries of leading competing countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, India and Sri Lanka enjoy low utility tariffs, particularly gas tariffs as compared to Pakistan. Also, Pakistani producers pay higher mark-up rate as compared to their counterparts in India, Sri Lanka, China, Turkey and Bangladesh. Moreover, textile exporters in India and Bangladesh even gain direct support from their governments in the form of duty drawbacks.

In contrast, the PBEA Chairman said Pakistan’s textile sector is hit by higher gas charges than those prevailing in competing nations. He added that natural gas, which is an important input for the industry should be strictly reserved for industrial use, and it should not be allowed to fuel private vehicles and for domestic purposes.

He said that though the textile manufacturing industry to a larger extent ensures efficient utilization of gas, it is taxed with heavy loadshedding. Making a comparison, Mr. Bashir said while the domestic textile sector operates at over 60 percent efficiency, home geysers operate only at 18 percent efficiency.

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