Pakistan has lost an opportunity for increasing the global textile share, which in turn would have created thousands of jobs and a rise in exports worth billions of dollars. The Pakistani global textile share has fallen from 2.2% to 1.8%, while at the same time, the Indian global textile share rose from 3.4% to 4.7% and that the Bangladeshi global textile share rose from 1.9% to 3.3%.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Asad Umar on Tuesday flayed the incumbent regime for allowing Indian yarn imports at 5 percent whereas the Pakistani yarn being exported to India has to pay 28 percent duty, making the Pakistani market a dumping ground.

The incumbent regime has tilted towards the Indian textile sector by imposing duty on local textile products despite the rising cost of doing business and energy shortage.

The PTI legislator lamented that the gas prices have been increased despite a fall in the global gas premiums, adding that the industry has to pay $6.7 per mbtu after the imposition of gas development infrastructure cess (GDIC), while an Indian textile manufacturer pays the gas price at $4.2 and that the same in Bangladesh pays $3.1.

Umar said that the electricity tariff being paid by the local textile manufacturers averages at 14.5 cents, which is way too high as compared with the regional competitors. The largest industrial employer in the country is also being deprived of its rights as it continues to face hardships against inappropriate government policies, adding that the textile counterparts in the neighbouring countries are free from such hardships.

As a result, the local textile exports have declined despite the fact that the country enjoys the generalised0 system of preferences (GSP) plus status. The existing textile units operating countrywide are running below capacity while many have shut their operations and retrenched thousands of workers.