LAHORE:Pakistan Carpet Manufacturer and Exporters Association (PCMEA) said on Monday that it had sent a letter to Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, appealing for instant remedial measures to save carpet industry languishing on the account of lack of trade incentives as well as pandemic related economic contractions.
In the letter, PCMEA Senior Vice Chairman Riaz Ahmad said that on issue of highly charged air and sea freight rates, request is pleaded for at least 50 % compensation subsidy by the govt against above rates. Letter demanded for international exhibitions participation with 50/50 govt subsidy instead of 80.20 which was approved by the ministry but yet not implemented till date.
It asked for waiver from import duties on un-finished carpet goods in raw from Thorkum border Afghanistan, as partial manufacturing in Afghanistan is done due to the availability of different knots in Afghanistan. It requested govt for zero % duties including sales tax on the import of partial manufacturing from Afghanistan.
Letter begged for special incentives due to International global recession and recent Pandemic COVID-19 disease. PCMEA letter squabbled on highly charged import duties on carpets in countries like Russia, Turkey, South America, Far East Countries, Eastern Europe so it requests for negotiation on above Countries to reduce import duties or signed FTA to resolve this issue.
Letter urged for release of payments against all kind of pending claims of duty drawback of taxes specially DLTL claims which the exporters have filed and waiting the release of funds by the govt. PCMEA SV chairman Riaz Ahmed said that as one of the largest segments in the global home textile industry, Handmade carpet industry, has a long history of great reputation in Pakistan.
“The origin of Pakistani handmade carpet industry can be traced back to the 11th century, since then, Pakistan has always been one of the leading and most popular carpet suppliers in the global home textile market, thanks to its exquisite design, subtle elegance, attractive colours and manufacturing. However, Pakistan’s carpet industry is losing its share in the global market over the recent decades, mainly due to lack of government support. Pakistan’s export value of handmade carpet declined almost 50% over the last decade, shrinking from US$278million in 2005-06 to US$67.7million in 2019-20. Around 70% of the workforce in Pakistan’s carpet industry is women who make carpets at home. Often these traditional workers lack proper training and the industry requires financing to complete the supply chain.