RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: President of Lasbela Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Yakoob Karim has strongly flayed the performance of outgoing government for not achieving any economic goal including export target.

He said that the government is once again set to miss export target due to its anti economic policies and frequent increases in utilities and cost of production.

He pointed out that Pakistan’s exports are expected to remain at $23 to $24 billion during ongoing fiscal year, not even the level of exports volume we had achieved about one decade ago. The government under STPF had set $35 billion exports target by June 30, 2018. The exports target announced in the trade policy could not materialise.

The STPF had not helped to increase the exports during three years, rather exports continuously declined.

The exporters believe that government had not accepted their proposals in last few years, which resulted in decline in exports. Pakistan’s exports had declined to $20 billion in last fiscal year from $25 billion of few years before.

Exports were adversely affected due to high energy costs, exchange rate appreciation and high import tariffs on inputs.

“Whatever exports have increased over last year was the result of our currency devaluation rather than government’s policies,” Yakoob pointed out.

The government had extended the Prime Minister’s Export Package for the next three years i.e. up to 30th June, 2021. The package aims at improving the competitiveness of the textile and non-textile export sectors to continue the export growth in the coming financial years.