7 mn people laid off in Pakistan textile industry amid dwindling exports

About seven million people in textile and textile-related industries in Pakistan have been laid off due to dwindling exports and the governments failure to end the economic crisis, associations claimed.

Representatives of the value-added textile associations said the current government does not have any policy to end the various crises affecting textile producers and exporters, Dawn reported.

The industry is on the verge of closure as many units have already closed down. Several others are planning to either shut down or shift their production abroad.

Textile factories are being deprived of necessary raw material and accessories.

Letters of credit worth as low as $5,000 are being refused, which has hit in-progress export orders of $500,000 per consignment.

It's causing severe disruption and production delays and has led to the cancellation of export orders. Demurrage on various consignments has increased the cost too much, the associations said.

Despite such a difficult situation, the government is importing expensive luxury cars like BMWs for cabinet members. These imports will have no contribution to foreign exchange earnings. They won't generate any taxes for the national exchequer and create zero employment, they said.

The government performance in the last nine months is poor, they said. Two finance ministers during this period have failed to resolve the ongoing economic crisis, they added. Neither the Prime Minister nor the Finance Minister have bothered to set aside some time to meet the exporters, they noted.

The industrial sector cannot operate under extreme financial stress as the alarm bells for sovereign default have been continuously ringing while the government's finance and economic team appears to be asleep at the wheel, Dawn news quoted the associations as saying.

The country is in the middle of a dollar crisis and the economy is facing an emergency-like situation.

The current shortage of dollars can be overcome only by promoting exports.

--IANS

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