Pakistan’s textile exports are likely to decrease by $3 billion in the current fiscal year (FY23) compared to exports of $19.4 achieved last fiscal year (FY22).

In a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (ATPMA) said that the decline in textile exports has been progressively accelerating with exports in February clocking in at $1.2 billion, over 28 percent less than exports registered in the same month of last year.

ATPMA said that additional capacity has been installed or is under installation through an investment of $5 billion (TERF/LTTF) but is not yet operational due to forex issues and the unavailability of energy. The association said that the decline in exports is a consequence of the moratorium on the import of raw materials, essential spare parts, lack of adequate supply of energy at competitive prices, and failure of the sales tax refund system. It said that 50 percent of the industry is now closed due to these reasons.

The textile industry has the premier for urgent intervention to reverse this decline before ‘irreversible damage’ to installed capacity is caused through bankruptcies and permanent loss of orders.

Source: Pro Pakistani