Pakistan : Steps to Rationalize Textile Duty Structure by June

The Minister for Industries and Production, Liaquat Ali Khan Jatoi, announced on Tuesday that present tariff for the textile sector was not appropriate and a committee has been constituted to rationalise it by June next.

"We are not satisfied with the present tariff structure and constituted a committee to rationalise tariff rates," he said at a press conference after chairing the meeting of Federal Textile Board (FTB).

Textile sector, Jatoi said, raised the issues of sales tax refund and other issues related to CBR, which would be resolved on priority basis, as the government wanted to support this sector.

According to the Minister, FTB has fixed the export target of $ 9.15 billion by 2005, but I asked them to raise it to $ 15 billion, which was quite possible with the modernisation of textile sector.

It has also been decided to modernise old textile plants to produce quality goods.

"We have constituted another committee to study a proposal that whether it is viable to manufacture textile machinery in Pakistan and if it is not possible how the machinery can be imported on lowest duty," Jatoi maintained.

He said Pakistan usually consumes 18 to 20 percent polyester in textile products, but now we have planned to take it to 50 percent by 2003.

For this purpose, the private sector would import 5 million spindles.

Replying to a question, he said that FTB has also decided to extend incentives to the cotton growers so that they could sow specific varieties, adding that the it has also been decided to launch media campaign to apprise the farmers about the varieties which are suitable.

He further said that the FTB which rarely met in past would now be able to hold meetings after every two months to evaluate the progress.