The Hindu Business Line : Man-made fibre textile exports seen rising 20%

INDIA `Shining' may be true for the Synthetic and Rayon Textile Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC) as the export performance for end-March 2004 remains shining with a 20 per cent growth estimated in the man-made fibre textiles exports from the country.

According to the SRTEPC Chairman, Mr Rakesh Mehra, the MMF Textile exporters, behind their export performance, are `not shining' as much because of the Government's indecisiveness on some of these exporters' major pleas on export facilitations. According to Mr Mehra, the indecisiveness is on account of the `divide' between the revenue department and that of the ministries supporting the exports, namely the Ministry of Textiles and the Commerce Ministry.

Mr Mehra who chaired a seminar on `Future of synthetic textiles exports - potential and challenges' held here on Thursday under the aegis of the SRTEPC felt that the grievance regarding the `untimely reduction' in the DEPB (duty entitlement pass book) rates could not be resolved even after discussions were held at length with the Ministries concerned and finally the exporters were slapped with a cut in the DEPB rates.

The denial of income-tax deduction on sale proceeds of DEPB too happened in the same way as the persuasion by the recent delegation of the Federation of Indian Export Organisation with the Minister of State for Finance too had little effect and the income-tax authorities finally raised the demands on exporters for payments. As for the brand rate of drawback too, the relief from a Bombay High Court ruling in favour of the exporters may not last long as the revenue department was preferring to move the Supreme Court against the High Court order, Mr Mehra said. He felt that a proactive bridging of the gaps between the Finance Ministry and that of the Textiles and Commerce Ministries at the earliest would remove the hardship for the exporting community.

He said that the appreciating rupee against the dollar had come as a cause for concern.Mr Mehra also held the view that though the interest rate liberalisation had brought down the rate, one was now witnessing that the rate for the retail sector remained lower than that of the export packing credit. To compound the difficulty further, the small time exporters were seldom being extended the packing credit in foreign currency.

However, the SRTEPC Chairman exuded confidence on the performance of the man-made fibre textile industry in exports in the post-2005 era considering the fact that already 90 per cent of the synthetic textiles exports from India were directed to the non-quota markets. He pointed out that the estimated exports for the financial year ended March 31, 2004 by the synthetic textiles sector would be $1.95 billion, a growth of 21 per cent over the previous year.

Mr S.B. Mohapatra, Secretary, Union Ministry of Textiles, who inaugurated the seminar said that the domestic textile sector had a case to increase the share of the man-made fibre textiles so as to lower the preponderance on cotton which proved a drag on India's exports. He suggested releasing more volume of cotton-based textiles for exports and filling that space with polyester and blends for the local consumption.

More Stories on : Textiles | Exports & Imports

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page