ISLAMABAD, DEC 22 (DNA) — The Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) on Sunday called for finalization and then its early implementation of some export enhancement package, urging the government to rescue this vital sector of economy and get the relief package implemented in its true spirit for sustainability of country’s exports.
Capacity of the industry was mostly un-utilized while overhead costs had increased which compelled the export sectors to think of alternatives, it maintained. PIAF Chairman Faheemur Rehman Saigol, in a statement here along with senior vice chairman Nasrullah Mughal and vice chairman Tahir Manzoor Chaudhary, said early implementation of an export package can help steer the exporting industry out of crisis.
The government needs to establish a long-term and sustainable policies in consultation with the real stakeholders to enhance exports, increasing foreign exchange earnings for the country. Presently, the high cost of doing business has proved to be dangerous for the export-oriented industry, as the ever-increasing energy, gas and power tariffs are the real threat to the economy amidst high markup rate and continuous fluctuations exchange rate.
They demanded the quarters concerned for initiating steps such as provision of uninterrupted energy supply to the industry to make Pakistani exports competitive in the international market, besides evolving an export-led policy and availability of energy at regionally competitive prices for economic turnaround.
The PIAF office-bearers mentioned that Pakistan’s share in global market was shrinking and going to other countries and unit price of its products was decreasing thus resulting in reduced profitability for Pakistani exporters. Tahir Manzoor Chaudhary stated that textiles in general and the value-added sector in particular were becoming uncompetitive in international market.
That was why export of Pakistani textile was not showing significant growth for the last few years while its competitors – Bangladesh, India, China and Vietnam were recording upward move in their exports, he cited.PIAF office-bearers also stressed that the supply of power and gas should not be interrupted during winter as the export orders in hand had to be honoured.
They asked the government to take prompt measures to bring down the production costs for the export industry to enable them to compete in the international market. Faheem Saigol said that the export industry is currently having difficulty to compete the global market because of rapid increase in production costs.
He said that the high cost of production is not good for our exports. Nasrullah Mughal said that high energy tariffs, growing rates of taxes, and lack of skilled labor are the main reasons behind the increase in the cost of production. —DNA
 — The Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) on Sunday called for finalization and){kind=link}