The Federal Minister for Commerce and Investment Syed Naveed Qamar on Friday assured that all efforts would be made to provide relief to industrial sectors and boost up the economy through exports.
A delegation of the textile sector from Karachi met with the minister and discussed the industry’s issues, with assurance of full support from his Ministry, said a press release issued by the Ministry of Commerce here.
The meeting deliberated upon the strategy to get more market access to different potential countries especially to Canada, Australia and South Africa besides taking more benefits of GSP-plus status given to Pakistan by the European Union.
The delegation included Chief Executives – Saqib Bilwani from Bonanza, Zaki Bashir from Gul Ahmed, Yaqoob Ahmed from Denim.
The textile operators mentioned that there were many anomalies left in the last annual budget, which need to be addressed immediately. The Minister emphasized on the diversification of textile products and exploration of new markets.
He invited them to attend a meeting in Islamabad on Monday along with concrete proposals.
The Minister was informed about the challenges and issues faced by the textile sector especially gas supply, sales tax and refund issues.
The Minister was appealed to resolve the issues of gas supply, drawback of Local Taxes and Levies (DLTL), energy and pending refunds.
Syed Naveed Qamar assured his complete support to solve the issues of the industrial sector on top priority and he assured them that he would discuss them in
his upcoming meeting with the finance ministry.
Addressing the issue of gas supply, the Minister informed the textile industry representatives that the gas supply was affected due to increase in the demand of gas, however, every effort would be made to supply gas to the industrial sector in order to boost the economy of the country. The textile industrial representatives requested to lessen the sales tax on raw materials especially cotton.—APP
