The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) revealed a decline of 2.5pc year-on-year fall in exports of textile and clothing to $1b till February. It happened because of a fall in receipts from raw material and low value-added products such as cotton yarn and fabrics.
The decrease in export receipts was clearly apparent in rupee terms. In the course of this month, value-added products registered an increase in terms of value and quantity.
The export figures for knitwear increased 2pc, ready-made garments rose 5.3pc, for towels it decreased by 3.9pc and bed linen climbed up by 2.7pc for the month of February.
The exports of primary commodities like cotton yarn registered a year-on-year reduction of 11.5pc, while those of cotton cloth and yarn shrank 14.8pc and 46.6pc, respectively.
The exports of made-up articles, barring towels grew 2.2pc and those of tents, canvas and tarpaulin climbed up 28.7pc. Receipts from art, silk and synthetic textile decreased 18.2pc while those from raw cotton registered a year-on-year increase of 13pc.
Preferential access to the European Union under the GSP+ scheme hasn’t helped uplift proceeds because of a decrease in demand, which resulted in declining export of textile products.
In these eight months till February, the value of exported textile and clothing products decreased 1.74pc year-on-year to $8.214b. Altogether the export proceeds in July-February declined 3.9pc to $13.317b.
The textile policy declared last year offers a 4pc rebate on the exports of ready-made garments on 10pc incremental increase over the preceding year, 2pc on home-textiles and 1pc on fabric.
In the last fiscal year, the government paid out Rs 2.5b under this policy, which helped in some ways to improve exports of value-added textile products.
Under a Rs 180b textile package announced by the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in January this year, rebate been increased to 7pc on ready made garments but it has also provided cash support of 4pc on yarn and grey cloth.
