LAHORE: The delay in the clearance of imported cotton containers at Karachi port has prompted textile owners to threaten the government with staging a protest as Pakistan battles to increase its dwindling foreign exchange reserves.
Hamid Zaman, the chairman of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), said. The textile industry will be obliged to protest if the government doesn’t approve the imported cotton that is arriving in Karachi.
He stated during a seminar hosted by the Lahore Economic Journalist Association that the lack of raw materials, primarily raw cotton, would prevent the textile industry from reaching its $25 billion export goal for the current year.
He projected that the value of textile exports this year would be between $16 and $17 billion.
After adding value, the textile sector exports finished cotton for four times its import price. Government should therefore permit importers to take home 35% of export value.
However, the APTMA chief warned that if things don’t get under control. Seven million people employed in the sector will be out of work in January.
“The industry only had 60 days’ worth of raw materials remaining, and if prompt port clearance of already-arrived cotton does not begin, textile production will cease entirely. According to him, this will make 25 million people unemployed nationwide.
According to Zaman, the textile industries of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh have already shuttered entirely or in part.
APTMA’s president begged the government to order commercial banks and the State Bank of Pakistan to make sure. To avoid any export crisis, quick letters of credit should be given to cotton importers. Due to the fluctuating currency rate.
Zaman confirmed in response to a question that some exporters were unable to return their export funds to Pakistan. Because of the fluctuating currency exchange.
He also urged the government to take action against those. Who were stockpiling US dollars, saying that the APTMA would assist the endeavor?
Zaman noted that foreign companies had to pay more in demurrage. And detention fees for imported goods than the value of the goods themselves.
The APTMA’s senior vice chairman, Kamran Arshad, said. Mainly because the state’s total output of cotton bales was only 4.6 million. There is a severe dearth of raw cotton in the local market.
He stated that it would take 15 million cotton bales to produce $20 billion in