LAHORE: Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has revealed that none of the friendly countries is willing to give financially support to Pakistan because of our imbalanced economy, caused by huge trade deficit.
The finance minister was addressing business community, financial and legal experts on Saturday.
What a nation can do when its imports keep rising and now total $80 billion despite steps made to curb the entry of specific commodities. However, our exports only bring in about $30 billion, the minister noted, before asking his audience, “Now tell us how our country can advance with such policy.”
He claimed that in an effort to close the export-import deficit, the government had taxed industrial firms that made no contribution to exports in addition to putting other similar sectors, such as traders and builders, under the tax net.
Miftah Ismail appeals the business community to donate 1% of their profits to aid flood victims.
Furthermore, none of our friendly nations are prepared to donate money to support us financially, he lamented.
In response to inquiries, he stated that the textile industry alone contributed $20 billion in exports. He noted that many industries were unable to export their products and were forced to purchase raw materials, etc. in order to manufacture their products due to a lack of diversification and value addition.
“Therefore, we decided to impose 5 per cent additional tax on manufacturers having zero contribution to exports. We are just doing this to woo them to start exports and contribute to bridging gap between imports and exports,” he said. “When anything from Pakistan can be exported, then why our manufacturing sector is not going for it,” he wondered.
Moreover, the federal finance and revenue minister met with representatives of the All-Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) on Saturday, assuring them of the government’s full support.
Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique, Governor and Deputy Governor State Bank of Pakistan, Chairman Federal Board of Revenue Asim Ahmed and Chief Collector Customs Rubab Sikandar also attended the meeting.
APTMA Patron in Chief Dr Gohar Ejaz, Central Chairman Abdul Rahim Nasir, Chairman Northern Zone Hamid Zaman, and other office-bearers welcomed the federal ministers.
Miftah said the disparity in price of gas between different provinces would be reconsidered and hopefully the issue would be resolved shortly with approval of the cabinet.
Miftah added, the government was exploring various options to ensure sustainable gas supply to the export industry in the coming winter and a number of measures had already been initiated to meet the requirement. He promised to find some suitable ways to meet the current gas demand of textile mills.
On the issue of liquidity crunch being faced by the industry and the problems being faced in getting clearance of imported consignments in the wake of restrictions imposed by SBP, he directed governor SBP to visit to the APTMA office next week in order to address the textile industry’s all finance-related issues.
