FPCCI using political figures to mint money: Shahid Butt

Lahore: Patron Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders Shahid Rasheed Butt on Sunday said the export award ceremony organised every year by the FPCCI is nothing but a deceit.

How the Apex chamber can award hundreds of businessmen for best performance in the export sector when Pakistan’s exports are stagnant since years and a great fall has been witnessed in the first nine months of the current fiscal, he said.

He said that the export awards has nothing to do with the merit, it is just a photo session with top government functionaries for which businessmen pay hefty amount to the organisers.

Shahid Rasheed Butt said that such celebrations help chambers to collect crores of rupees which are generally misused by the ruling group of the trade body.

He asked to political leaders to ignore such functions unless the private sector improves export performance.

The veteran business leader said that in the first nine months of the current fiscal the non-textile exports stood at $7.72 billion which were 8.70 billion dollars in 2013-14.

Similarly, he said, the textile exports dipped by 5.99 percent to 17.93 USD despite the facility of GSP and Pakistan being fifth largest producer of cotton.

Pakistan’s export sector is in red for which some institutions including TDAP, infested with politics, should take some responsibility which has turned attention of foreign buyers to India, Bangladesh, China and Vietnam.