Textile millers advocate export-centric policies

As the country heads towards negotiating another International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme, textile millers have called on the government to formulate export-oriented policies by reducing energy tariffs and tax rates to make the industry competitive in the global market. In a letter to Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) stressed that as the country was going to negotiate a new IMF programme, a fundamental reform required was to foster an export-centric culture across all sectors of the economy. It was of the view that the new programme should accommodate the peculiar circumstances where the essential need was to develop and expand exports. “This will go a long way in alleviating one of Pakistan’s most pressing issues: a chronic shortage of foreign exchange.”