Tariff anomaly leads to acute dearth of PSF

25 Jun '10

2 min read

The textile industry is tackling, a serious tariff irregularity, of 0 percent duty on import of polyester staple fibre (PSF) blended yarn, whereas duty on the imports of PSF, as raw material is subjected to a punitive rule of 4.5 percent import duty

Explaining this irregularity, the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has demanded that, the government protect the textile industry from adverse crisis by rationalizing PSF tariff to reduce the yarn cost, so that, the value-added segment can become more competitive in the global market.

Although, import and export of cotton is duty free, several trade restrictions have been levied on PSF. Similarly, synthetic usage is merely 18 percent of the country's raw input mix, in contrast to, 60 percent synthetic usage existing in the world.

Currently, Pakistan is facing acute shortage of PSF. The closure of a firm, owing to financial crisis has led to shortage of PSF domestically by 38 percent. More so, the difference between domestic Pakistani PSF and global PSF rates have steeply increased to a shocking figure of nearly 30 percent, making Pakistani exports incompetent in the market.

If Pakistan needs to attain an export target of $25 billion by 2014 and also generate thousands of jobs, then government will have to do away with all the restrictions and tariffs on imports of raw materials, which are limitedly available in Pakistan, urged APTMA.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India

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