Govt asked to speed up tax refunds’ process

FAISALABAD: Textile exporters demanded the Government to speed up the process of paying out billions of rupees outstanding tax refunds to get maximum industrial growth and to increase exports significantly.

Raising the demand, Sheikh Ilyas Mehmood, chairman Pakistan Textile Exporters Association said huge amounts of value added textile exporters are stuck up in sales tax, local taxes drawbacks, customs rebate, and federal excise duty refund regimes creating severe financial crunch and if that amounts are released, exporters can deploy that capital towards expanding their businesses, which in turn will help Pakistan's export earnings grow. Pakistan holds only 1.5% of the global market share in textiles, which means that this industry has strong prospects to grow. Textile exports had crossed 13 billion dollars export bench mark in outgoing fiscal and would be achieving far better results if the circumstances remained conducive. But the liquidity crunch created by the blockage of refund claims would play havoc with the tempo of exports. Textile industry have aimed to get maximum benefits from GSP plus facility expected in January and have the ability to hit 15 billion dollar export bench mark in current fiscal but it seems not to achieve the desired results in absence of adequate funds, he opined.

Sheikh Ilyas Mehmood was of the view that Textile industry has taken a severe hit at a time when many of the leading players had invested huge sums in upgrading infrastructure and expanding capacities, planning to meet the growing needs of the export market but severe shortage of energy devastated the manufacturing and industrial sectors rendering export units dysfunctional and the situation is resulting in the loss of production, he added. Prevailing economic, financial and industrial crises have badly affected the industrial and trade activities, productivity and employment and major revenue generating textile sector to the tune of more than 13 billion dollar per year is in doldrums. Exporters are working under dire circumstances as the cost of inputs is increasing day by day rendering them unable to compete in international market. Textile industry, the largest employer in country's manufacturing sector and the largest exporting industry, is currently going through a very tough time and unless remedial measures are immediately taken by the government, a large number of units will have to close, throwing thousands of workers out of jobs, he said. Textile exports are crumbling and the industry and business are squeezing due to non availability of funds, he claimed.

PTEA chairman demanded that the government should bail out textile industry and exports from the crisis by removing hurdles and provision of necessary incentives to increase the textile exports of the country. He demanded early release of blocked funds in sales tax, customs rebate DLTL and FED refund regimes to enable the textile exporters to retain their hard won export markets at this time of tough competition in international markets and to get benefits of GSP plus.