Daily Times

The government is making serious efforts to overcome the shortage of cotton and cotton yarn and hopefully a mutually acceptable solution will be made after the rejection of summary of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to import cotton yarn from India through Wagah border, said Mr Abdul Razak Dawood, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister.

Addressing a zoom conference with the stakeholders, he said that the government is fully aware of the ill-impacts of cotton shortage on the textile sector and in this connection final decision would be made in line with regional and national interests. He said that the government was already discussing some alternate proposals to maintain the tempo of increase in textile export and hopefully a holistic approach will be adopted to finalize under consideration steps in best national interest.

Earlier, Engineer Hafiz Ihtasham Javed President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) acknowledged the positive policy measures taken by the government and said that because of policy interventions, textile exports recorded a phenomenal growth during October to December 2020. He said that the business community had reacted proactively and forewarned the government about the possible shortage of cotton and cotton yarn within the country. He said that the exports started declining due to the unavailability of raw material and the figure clearly indicates our apprehensions. He said that it was very disturbing that despite a shortage of yarn, its export is continuing uninterrupted which has further aggravated the availability of raw material. “The exploiters have enhanced the prices of yarn unrealistically which will certainly have a negative impact on our overall textile export,” he said and demanded that regulatory duty on yarn import may be withdrawn forthwith. “Similarly in order to discourage yarn export, the government should clamp at least 10% regulatory duty on export of cotton yarn”, he said and added that it will ensure availability of cotton yarn for the domestic textile sector. He made it clear the FCCI being an elected representative platform of the business community believes in resolving issues through negotiations instead of resorting to protestation. He said that FCCI will play a positive role in this crisis by bringing government and stakeholders on one page.

Engineer Hafiz Ihtasham Javed also appreciated the effort of Mr. Abdul Razak Dawood and said that the private sector will continue to cooperate with the government instead of creating problems for it.