FAISALABAD:Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) on Tuesday demanded zero-rating for export-oriented sectors for increasing national exports to materialize the dream of developed and prosperous Pakistan.
In a statement here, PTEA Patron-in-Chief Khurram Mukhtar said that the cost of doing business had increased to unsustainable levels with the withdrawal of zero-rating (SRO 1125) and implementation of 17 percent General Sales Tax (GST) on export-oriented sectors. He also demanded to accelerate the process of payments of exporters’ sales tax refunds and said that textile industry was backbone of the economy and had always played a pivotal role in upward trajectory of foreign exchange.
He said that restoration of zero-rating (no-tax, no-refund) was imperative to improve exporters’ liquidity position, improve competitiveness and act as a deterrent to cheating and smuggling, and as a result, the market would remain documented and largely made in Pakistan.
The textile industry in Pakistan could only be viable if the government extended a zero rate regime in true sense throughout the complete chain in addition to restoring the SRO-1125 to its original status as zero-rating regime applicable in the past, so that the country could continue its journey to development and prosperity, he added.