Usman Ashraf, Senior Vice Chairman of the Pakistan Carpet Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PCMEA) has said that the exporters are suffering from severe mental pressure due to the decisions of the State Bank of Pakistan without consulting the stakeholders, uncertainty, and dollar fluctuations.
He further said that on behalf of the associations across the country, letters are written to the officials of the State Bank for awareness of the problems and their solutions, but unfortunately, these letters are not taken into account.
He expressed these views while addressing a meeting in the office of the association. Senior Central Leader Abdul Latif Malik, Chairperson Carpet Training Institute (CTI) Ijazur Rehman, Senior Member Parvez Hanif, Riyaz Ahmed, Saeed Khan, Akbar Malik, Major (Rtd) Akhtar Nazir, Shahid Hasan, Umeer Usman, and others were also present on this occasion.
He said that the Prime Minister, Finance Minister, and Commerce Minister are requested to appoint authorized focal persons for solving and contacting the problems of exporters. All the participants of the meeting expressed serious concern over the difficulties faced by exporters, uncertainty due to political instability and fluctuations in the dollar and it was demanded from the government that political stability is inevitable for the development of the economy, for which all political leaders should sit at one table.
Usman Ashraf said that it is said that State Bank is an independent institution and the question is why the issues of the stakeholders are not being listened to even after its autonomous position. “Without thinking about the impact of any decision on the economy or the stakeholders, circulars, and notifications are issued after making decisions,” adding he said there are many long-standing problems of exporters but no progress is being made towards solving them due to which exporters are deeply worried.
He said that Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, and Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar are requested to get aware of our problems and arrange meetings with the officials of the State Bank to solve them. It has been demanded many times to appoint an authoritative focal person for awareness of the problems, their solution, and strong connections. He said that the cost of production has increased to such an extent that Pakistani exporters are not able to compete with rival countries in the global markets, but no attention is being paid to this.
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