Textile industry seeks cheaper money, energy to boost exports

From April onwards, the country has a substantial opportunity to increase textile exports and capture a larger chunk of the world market, says Pakistan Textile Exporters Association Patron-in-Chief Khurram Mukhtar. He said there were two main areas that the incoming government should focus on to boost textile exports: electricity-related reforms and the availability of capital. Electricity prices for the export sector have been increased by 115 per cent from Rs20 per kWh to Rs43.07 kWh under the caretaker government. However, the Power Division has been working on a proposal to reduce the cut tariffs for the industrial sector recently. On the one hand, the unprecedented interest rates have made borrowing prohibitively expensive. To curtail the stubbornly high inflation rates, the State Bank of Pakistan has kept the monetary policy rate at an all-time high of 22 per cent since June last year. On the other hand, the system of sales tax refunds is ineffective, causing a liquidity crunch.