KARACHI: The love of Pakistan’s business community for PTI, Imran Khan and his tall claims is fast fading as almost all business leaders have started to voice their concerns on the ability of current government in steering the country out of the economic crisis; the crisis which the Prime Minister has been propagating world over.
Exporters’ liquidity to the tune of Rs72 billions in DDT and DLTL is stuck up with the government resulting in a severe liquidity crunch for the export oriented value-added textile sector.
“The government has not given any firm commitment to release DDT and DLTL claims,” lamented Muhammad Jawed Bilwani, Central Chairman Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association.
“The previous government had released Rs32.18 billion in respect of payment of DDT under PM Export Package and DLTL Claims under Textile Policies of 2009-14 and 2014-19 while the sitting government has not released a single paisa till date,” Bilwani said.
Exporters are of the view the new government had been busy in lip-service and photo-shoots for the past four months, but no practical steps and measures had been taken yet to release the amount of claims of DDT and DLTL.
Bilwani added that billions of rupees in Sales Tax Refund Claims, Customs Rebates Claims and Withholding Tax Claims of exporters were also stuck with the government.
He articulated that Value Added Textile Export Sector is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy as it earns major chunk of foreign exchange and revenue for the government. Besides, the sector is also labour-intensive and largest employment provider and generator.
“Value Added Textile Exporters are battling for their survival in the global market due to costly inputs and high cost of manufacturing,” Bilwani said and demanded that to overcome the challenges, to provide an enabling business environment in country and to create level playing field for textile exporters, it is crucial that the government immediately released payment against DDT & DLTL claims of textile exporters and accord priority to resolve the issues of textile exporters.