Pakistan Apparel Forum has asked the government to make master bill of lading a mandatory document for import of goods more especially fabrics. This demand was made in a letter, sent by Chairman PAF, Muhammad Jawed Bilwani, to the Federal Commerce Minister, Khurram Dastgir Khan. Bilwani also expressed concerns over release of 106 loaded containers of fabric smuggled from India that would flood the local market, upstaging the country's own manufactured items.

"The House Bill of Lading as such is not a lawful document while the Master Bill of Lading is a valid legal document which can be verified online," the letter says. Bilwani pointed out that the Customs had seized 18 containers loaded with banned Indian cloths. He said that some 106 of such containers with the illegal goods were cleared that subsequently flooded the local markets, purportedly cleared with the involvement of some dishonest elements at the dry ports of Lahore, as media report reveals.

Bilwani demanded of the government to punish the organized racket of the fabric smugglers and its facilitators in accordance with the law. He urged the relevant authorities to take strict preventive measures to end the menace of smuggling of the banned Indian goods into Pakistani markets. He said that the smuggled goods have turned the local industry unviable and pushed it near to closure.

He further said that more than 221,500 power looms have been closed amid disastrous effects of smuggled fabric to local markets. Majority of looms closed in the major districts of Punjab as the banned Indian grey cloths were smuggled in the guise of imported fabric of Chinese origin.

The most affected cities where power looms are closed and scrapped included: Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Kasur and Multan. Resultantly, he said, the manufacturing units scaled back to the lowest level of production. He feared the smuggled goods would bring the local industry to the dead end if continued to flood the local markets of the country.

Further, he said, the closures of units would spur layoff of employees that may lead to social disorder in the country. He said that the government has turned a blind eye to the critical situation of the local textile sector. He said the smuggled goods also cause losses to the tune of millions of rupees to the industry.

"To eradicate smuggling, eliminate under-invoicing and expose and punish the culprits behind such scandalous acts, we reiterate our demand to the Government, which we are raising for the last one decade, that the Government must declare mandatory that the all imported products (particularly fabrics) must only be imported and allowed only under Master Bill of Lading issued by the shipping companies instead of House Bill of Lading issued by Freight Forwarding Agents."

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017