Talking to journalists here on Friday, Chairman Khurram Mukhtar and Vice Chairman Sohail Pasha said that gross mismanagement of loadshedding and backing out from committed and agreed formula with the government and the industrialists had devastated the industrial production.
"It has also adversely affected the textile exporters who are unable to meet their shipment schedule with the their foreign buyers. Under such circumstances not only textile exports would dip down but the target of 10 billion dollars for textile exports will also not be achieved," they said.
During the first half of the current fiscal year national exports had already dwindled by 3 percent compared with the same period of previous year. They said that the latest statistics reveal that from July to December 2009 the export of cotton cloth had decreased to 27.48 percent, bed wear 6.12 percent, knitwear 6.49 percent and towels 5.2 percent. "It indicates across-the-board decline in exports of value-added sector as our rival exporting countries were capturing our markets," they said.
Pointing out the facts behind this phenomenon, they said raw material of our exportable goods had become costly. Prices of cotton yarn had gone up by 30 percent and polyester fiber by 15 percent. While the cost of inputs had also increased substantially jacking up over cost of production enormously and making our export prices unacceptable for buyers.
The industrial and manufacturing woes had been further aggravated by electricity loadshedding, which disrupts the production activity in addition to gas shut down, they said. They said that regressive measures would have negative impact on textile exports, which were already on the decline.
Pakistan was in dire need of enhancing exports to provide some cushion to its sagging economy. However, due to these factors, exports were suffering right from the beginning of current financial year, they said.
The textile sector contributes more than 60 percent to the country's total exports, has a share of 46 percent in total manufacturing and employs 40 percent of the total workforce was in deep trouble and seeking some bail out package from the government. At the moment when regional rivals were giving concession to the textile sector, the Pakistani textile industry was fighting for its survival, they said.
They urged the government to take urgent cognisance of this serious matter of national importance and intervene immediately on behalf of textile sector and ensure optimum supply of gas to industry to enable the exporters to fulfil their commitments with foreign buyers. If the government fails to stop load shedding the country would not only lose foreign exchange but also export markets, which would be captured by rival countries, they said.