The federal Government approved the revised Textile and Apparel Policy (TAP) 2020-25, envisaging doubling its exports target up to $42 bn in the coming years. Prime Minister aide on Commerce & Textiles Abdul Razak Dawood speaking in a presser said the incumbent Government-approved textiles policy with the objective of ensuring the sustainability of textile sector exports.
Dawood said the Textile Policy approved by the cabinet contemplated three years target as textile exports will be jacked up to $27 bn in the fiscal year 2022-23, $34 bn in 2023-24, and $42 bn in the fiscal year 2024-25. He mentioned that the first draft of Textile Policy had asked for fixed prices of electricity and gas provisions for textile exports but later on it was envisaged that the textile sector would be provided competitive prices to bring them at par with international and regional competitors keeping in view the rising energy prices in the international market.
“One of the main objectives of the textile policy is to give our textile industry internationally competitive electricity and gas rates, and that has been a major impetus behind export growth”, he maintained saying the country’s economy is moving in the right direction.
Ministries of finance, commerce, and energy will determine ‘competitive energy rates’ at the time of budget-making every year to book its costs or subsidies in the budget, he said while reiterating commitment. He said we are assuring the business people that we will give them international competitive prices as per the new policy on a continuous basis and we will also maintain tariff rationalization.
Achieving sustainable growth to reverse the accelerated pace after emerging challenges on the economic front remained a challenge for the country’s economic managers, he added saying we have to diversify on account of products to achieve exports of $100 to $200 bn over the next decade. A report of the Federal Bureau of Statistics said Islamabad posted its highest textile exports during the first seven months of the ongoing fiscal year as the sector’s exports increased by 25 percent to $10.93 bn during July 2021-January 2022.
The textile sector provides employment to about 40 percent of the industrial workforce in South Asian country, consumes almost 40 percent of banking credit for manufacturing, and accounts for 8.5 percent of the gross domestic product. Such commitments were also made in previous regimes as former governments announced two five-year textiles policies for 2009-14 and 2014-19 to increase its exports but, it could not manage to meet these targets in the past.
