Pak textile exporters urge Imran Khan govt to import cotton from India

Lahore [Pakistan], March 15 : As the unavailability of cotton yarn in Pakistan continues to rise, the country's textile exporters association has urged the Imran Khan government to import cotton yarn from India to ensure continuity in export growth.
"In order to overcome the scarcity of basic raw material, the government should allow the cross-border import of cotton yarn from India to ensure continuity in export growth," said Muhammad Ahmad, Chairman Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) in a statement as quoted by The News International.
Khurram Mukhtar, Patron-in-Chief PTEA, in his statement, expressed concern over undue delay in disbursement of exporters' Duty Drawback of Taxes and Income Tax refunds (over Rs50 million) as exporters' liquidity had already taken a strong negative hit from COVID-19.
"The government must take immediate measures to ease off the financial stress and gear up the export growth," he said.
Saqib Majeed, Vice Chairman PTEA, was of the view that undue delay in the approval of Textile Policy was resulting in deferral or even backing out possible investments in the textile chain, according to The News International.
Pakistan's foreign debt and liabilities have mounted by USD 3 billion or 2.6 per cent during the six months period ended in December last year, the central bank's data showed last month.
According to The News, till December, external debt and liabilities of the country totalled USD 115.7 billion compared to USD 112.7 billion by end of June. The total external debt and liabilities were USD 110.7 billion till December 2019, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).