LAHORE: The Pakistan Readymade Garments Manu­fac­turers and Expor­ters Association (Prgmea) on Monday urged the government to take measures to lower business costs in the textile sector to the level of regional competitors.

Prgmea Chairman Ijaz Khokhar in statement said that Pakistan’s textile exports were once close to those of neighbouring countries like India but in recent years they have not been able to maintain this degree of competitiveness.

He added as per the regional comparison of cost of doing business, it was evident that Pakistan’s high wages and power tariffs were creating hurdles for smooth business.

Khokhar also said the value-added textile export sector was vital with 45 per cent of total exports of the country and was contributing major portion of 84pc of textile exports.

Prgmea Vice-Chairman Naseer Malik said that without introducing the culture of value-addition, Pakistan would never be able to compete in the international market. He said that Pakistan was far behind the other countries when it came to earning the value fetched per million bales.

He stated that due to the non-payment of sales tax refund and custom rebates the exporters faced financial losses further aggravating this issue.

Published in Dawn ,July 14th, 2015

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