Govt Has No Funds to Meet Textile Millers’ Demands

Textile millers’ demands are unlikely to meet in near future due to lack of funds, revealed the source in the Ministry of Textiles here on Monday.

According to sources, Ministry agrees with the most of the demands of the All Pakistan textile Mills Association (Aptma) but there is severe shortage of funds. “We have been writing repeatedly to the Ministry of Finance to release funds but there is a lukewarm response, only Rs9 billion were released against our demand of Rs40 billion to implement PM’s export package,” well placed source said.

She said that instead of putting their demands in front of the textile ministry, the millers should question the finance ministry and other departments concerned. Textiles ministry job is to make policies and to work as a liaison between different departments to facilitate the textile sector, they added. It can only request not dictate to the Ministry of Finance, she added. She said that the textile policy and other favourable rules and procedures were initiated by the Ministry of Textiles.

It is pertinent to mention here that the textile millers have announced a strike after Eid and threatened to close their factories if their demands not met. The association is demanding immediate implementation of Rs180 billion export package announced early this year. They are asking for clearing payment against Refund Payment Orders (RPO). The association also demands removal of GIDC on RLNG.

“We have been writing to Ministry of Finance and other related departments to release funds to clear RPOs but we have received no response yet,” the source said.