Govt should take steps to revive sick units : Mian Zahid Hussain

Lahore: President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday expressed concern over possible relocation of various towel manufacturers to Bangladesh due to absence of enabling environment.

There is general hopelessness amongst the towel manufacturers and exporters who are confronted with increased taxation, rising cost of doing business and power outages which has resulted in their shrinking share in international market, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that exporters need a level playing field, rationalised taxation regime and revival of sick units for which immediate steps are needed.

Towel exporters should get all the refunds while exports should be declared zero rated at zero percent, so there is no claim and no refund, he added.

He said that energy supply should be dependable and it cost should be comparable to regional competitors while taxation should be revisited as exporters are bearing a burden of eleven percent while many competing countries are not getting any tax on exports.

He said that a committee should be formed with the participants from SBP, commercial banks, finance ministry and the other relevant stakeholders to resolve the issue of non-performing loans and that of sick manufacturing units so that exports of this segment can be increased.

He demanded that all the loans should be restructured immediately, linking the repayment period to the revenue of the concerned company as some ineffective policies are cause harm rather than benefiting trade and exports.