LAHORE: The Chairman of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association, Mr S.M. Tanveer, said on Sunday that the association had decided to ‘voluntarily’ close down the textile industry because of the losses it had been suffering.

“An emergency meeting of Aptma’s general body has deliberated on the adverse circumstances and found it unfeasible to incur losses by operating mills partially,” Mr Tanveer said in a statement.

According to the Aptma chairman, the cost of doing business in the textile sector has gone through the roof and the burden of incidental taxes, provincial cess, system inefficiencies and the punitive withholding tax regime have added fuel to the fire.

The Aptma chairman said the owners of mills in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Lahore, Fai­salabad, Multan and Karachi had decided to close down operations and lay off millions of workers because they had nothing to offer their international buyers against the regional competitors.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2015

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