He said that difference between imports and exports during the month of Sep 17 was 51 percent. It was narrowed-down to 36 percent in October 17 and further reduced to 11 percent in the month of November 17. He said that govt's top priority is to give maximum relief to the value added textile sector in order to bridge the gap between textile imports and export in addition to creating more job opportunities for the youth.
Earlier, in his welcome address, Mian Naeem Ahmad Chairman PHMA (NZ) congratulated Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan on taking the portfolio of most important ministry of Finance & Economic Affairs. He also thanked Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan for pleading the cause of value added textile sector and demanded that concession on electricity tariff should be made applicable to B2, B3 & B4 connections.
He said that the maximum rate of electricity should be Rs 7 per unit for the textile sectors so that our products could compete with our regional competitors who are already getting subsidize electricity and gas. He also demanded that the rate of gas should be uniform across the country. He also expressed concern on recently issued SRO eliminating the role of associations for the payment of DDT claims for 2017-18 under the Prime Minister's export package.
He said that stakeholder must be taken into confidence and this unilateral decision should be withdrawn immediately. He warned that new practice will open the floodgates of fraud and bogus payment under this new SRO. Hence the role of associations for the processing of R&D claims may be restored immediately to discourage the chances of bogus or fraudulent claims etc. A question answer session was also held in which Syed Zia Alamdar Hussain, Muhammad Amjad Khawaja and Qamer Aftab also participated.