Page 16 - CMA Journal (May-June 2025)

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Exclusive Interview

“

Domestically, while the business
environment and economy have certainly

improved compared to FY23 and FY24, exporters

continue to face punitive advance turnover
taxes, high energy costs — nearly double

regional benchmarks — and

recurring raw-material shortages

worsened by restrictive import

controls and LC-opening delays “

Mr. Kamran Arshad

Chairman, All Pakistan Textile

Mills Association (APTMA)

ICMA: How do you view the Federal Budget 2025–26 turnover in advance versus 1.25% for domestic sales,
from the perspective of the textile industry? Do you creating a disincentive to export, and exacerbating
think it meets any of APTMA’s key expectations? liquidity pressures for companies operating on very thin
margins of 2-5%.
Kamran Arshad: The Federal Budget 2025–26 once
again prioritizes FBR revenue over industrial growth, Meanwhile, industrial power tariffs at around 11
offering no relief on the income-tax distortions or cents/kWh remain as much as double those in India,
energy-price burdens that APTMA has long flagged. Bangladesh, Vietnam, and China (5–9 cents/kWh), with no
Exporters remain trapped in a dual advance taxation measures to eliminate the Rs 100–150 billion cross-subsidy
regime, with 1.25% advance minimum turnover tax plus that keeps industrial power tariffs uncompetitive. New
a 29% income-tax liability (and up to 10% super tax) levies—such as the miscalculated captive-power gas levy
under the normal tax regime, and 1 and the Rs 82,000/tonne petroleum levy on HFO—further
percent-of-export-proceeds under the fixed tax undermine alternatives to an overstretched grid, leaving

regime—effectively forcing them to pay 2.25% of industry without viable options.

14 ICMA’s Chartered Management Accountant, May-June 2025