Adil Bashir, Chairman All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Punjab has called for freezing the interest cost of loans, including long-term as well as working capital loans/ advances for a period of three months from April onwards.
The Chairman urged the government to make arrangements for issuing clear Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to restart production and protection of jobs. He has proposed setting up of monitoring committees at the district and provincial levels to monitor the production activities at mills, adding that payment of the utility bills of the textile industry should also be deferred by three months.
He urged the government to direct the Federal board of Revenue (FBR) for immediate payment of all the sales tax refunds up to 80 percent of the claim within 72 hours of filing refund claims.
In case the lock down continues beyond one month, he said the government should share the burden of salaries from the funds of Social Security, Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution, Workers Welfare Funds, and similar other arrangements under the control of the government
