PYMA (Sindh Balochistan Zone) Chairman Danish Hanif drew the attention of the government towards sinking polyester filament fabric yarn industry, stating that around 300,000 looms and knitting machines have suspended operations during the last five years, resulting in directly and indirectly affecting a total of around five million people.

PYMA Chairman said that the inefficient and outdated domestic polyester filament yarn industry does not fulfil even 25% of the total demand of Pakistan. Polyester yarn (PFY) attracts 12% custom duty versus Polyester Fibre, which attracts only 7% custom duty whereas the raw material and the quantity of inputs to produce both are exactly same.

He said polyester fibre is consumed by corporate sector versus polyester yarn in SME sector. In addition, local PSF production is enough to suffice Pakistan’s requirement whereas production of polyester yarn is only 25% of the required quantity for Pakistan, still import duty of PFY is at 12% vs polyester fibre’s 7%.

The ongoing Anti-Dumping Investigation on Polyester Filament Yarn (PFDY/PDTY), which is basic raw material for the polyester fabric, is totally unjustified, he added. The user industry would be unnecessarily penalised even for those products which are not produced by the domestic industry. Cost for the end user would increase substantially and that would affect the weaving and knitting industry.

The domestic producers of polyester filament yarn are also lobbying to impose Regulatory Duty (RD) on the imported polyester filament yarn, which would be detrimental for the entire weaving and knitting industry.

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