Imports of textile machinery declined by 13 percent during the last fiscal year, due mainly to persistent crisis in the textile sector and the high cost of doing business in the country, importers said.

They said that textile industry has been in turmoil for the last two years. It has been facing several problems, including high costs of doing business and unavailability and high rates of utilities, which have put a serious impact on the growth of textile sector. Ultimately the import of textile machinery has been continuously on the wane.

"The industrialists are not expanding their business due to uncertain situation of the industry and waiting for a long-term textile policy from the new coalition government," they added.

Recently, the government has also abolished research and development (RandD) support programme for the textile sector from July 1 2008, which is another setback for the textile industry, they said.

While the recent hike in gas tariff would also hurt the growth of the textile industry and the industrialists would be further reluctant in the investment, they added.

According to official statistics released by Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS), country's textile machinery imports declined to 438.270 million dollars during the last fiscal year over the import of 502.898 million dollars in fiscal year 2007, depicting a decrease of 64.6 million dollars in last fiscal year. Imports of textile machinery in June 2008 also indicated a decline of 22 percent, as compared to June 2007.

In June 2008, the industrialists and textile manufacturers have imported textile machinery worth 32.101 million dollars as compared to 41.07 million dollars during the corresponding period fiscal year 2007, which depicted a decrease of 9 million dollars only in June 2008.

"We have submitted our suggestions for the revival of the textile industry during the tenure of the Shaukat Aziz government, but despite our several requests, the government did not announce any package for textile industry," a leading textile industrialist said. He said that new investment in the textile sector has also plunged and now textile industrialists are concentrating on the modification of their existing projects to meet demands of international buyers.

Another factor, which brought about the decline in the machinery imports, is the enhanced interest rates on loans, he added. "We are expecting further decline in the imports of textile machinery during the current fiscal year, if the present government does not announce any relief package for the textile industry, besides minimising the cost of doing business, he added.

Source: brecorder.com