LAHORE: The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) on Friday urged the government to formulate a strategy and recover Rs30 billion from textile millers in order to ensure the ginning industry’s survival amid COVID-19.
Presenting his association’s 10-point agenda in a press conference, PCGA caretaker Chairman Hafiz Abdul Rehman demanded the government to waive interest on bank loans from January 1, 2020, to June 30, 2020.
He further asked the government to make the Trade Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) functional and purchase 0.5 cotton bales from ginners so that the payment to farmers could be ensured.
“The government should ensure the payment of withholding tax refunds, which have been pending for the last 10 years, to help the ginning industry overcome liquidity crunch being caused by COVID-19 outbreak,” Rehman maintained.
He said that the government should defer bank guarantees as well as markup payments for a year at least.
The PCGA chief urged the government to exempt of the country’s entire textile supply chain, including weaving and netting, from lockdown so as to expedite the recovery of payments of already sold ginned cotton to these industries.
He also urged the government to advise all commercial banks to allow the sale of cotton on credit so that ginners could adjust the limits of banks.
“The present 0.5 million ginned cotton bales stock should be exempted from sales tax, income tax and other taxes.”
While addressing the premier, the PCGA chairman said that all steps mentioned above were the need of the hour to save the ginning industry and make the cotton sector functional.
He hoped that PM Imran Khan would address the concerns of the ginning industry at the earliest and provide relief for its survival.
