The Hindu Business Line : Data discrepancies over textile exports

The Secretary (Textiles), Mr R. Poornalingam, is understood to have underscored the importance of timely availability of trade data on textiles and clothing, specially for taking any decision on an urgent basis.

New Delhi , May 22

HAS India failed to cash in on the free trade in textiles and clothing after the abolition of the quota regime on January 1, 2005 with the first quarter's (January-March 2005) export figures for textile goods reportedly showing a dip even as this segment's overseas prospects are touted to be bright?

The answer to this poser is yes and no if the sources in the Government are to be taken seriously. For instance, provisional data of India's textile exports culled out by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S) Kolkata for the period January-March 2005 said the total textile exports, including handicrafts, coir and jute, were Rs 15,099 crore against Rs 19,178 crore in the corresponding months of 2004, marking a steep decline of 21.3 per cent in rupee terms.

The fast-moving segment within textiles and the readymade garments sector, notched up a negative growth of 21.4 per cent at Rs 6,709 crore during January-March 2005 against Rs 8,535 crore in the corresponding months of 2003.

However, officials in the Textile Ministry, voice reservation over this provisional data, as the DGCI&S has three phases of collecting data — raw, provisional and a final one after factoring in all manual counts from different centres where digital data collection is absent. They said that the Directorate General of Foreign Trade is looking at revamping the data collection machinery of DGCI&S so that the discrepancies in the three stages are narrowed down as far as possible. Even assuming that the DGCI&S data is correct to a fault, the data from importing countries such as the US, the European Union (EU) and Canada speak of a diametrically different story.

Citing the US import data drawn from US customs figures or the global trade atlas, India's exports to the US of apparel and clothing accessories, knitted or crocheted, amounted to $219.8 million against $147 million in January-March 2004, marking a growth of 48.9 per cent.

Similarly, goods of apparel and clothing, not knitted or crocheted, amounted to $590.23 million during January-March 2005 against $454.7 million in January-March 2004, while other made-up textile articles, sets, worn clothing, worn textile articles and rags amounted to $250.04 million during January-March 2005 against $204.8 million in January-March 2004. Similarly, in the case of cotton categories, US imports from India available up to April 2005 show that such imports amounted to 750.631 million sq. mt against 608.804 million sq. mt. in January-April 2004, marking a growth of 23 per cent.

Available figures from Eurostat, the EU data collection agency, show that textile imports from India during January-February 2005 went up by 17.76 per cent in apparel and clothing, knitted or crocheted, 11.85 per cent in the not knitted or crocheted segment and 8.20 per cent in made-up textile segments.

Concerned over the data discrepancies, the Secretary (Textiles), Mr R. Poornalingam, is understood to have underscored the importance of timely availability of trade data on textiles and clothing specially for taking any decision on an urgent basis.

The Apparel Export Promotion Council's (AEPC) Chairman, Mr A. Sakthivel, when contacted, told Business Line that it would be difficult to work policy responses on "a weak data base." He said the council, being the premier textile body, could help the Ministry in analysing the provisional export data available on a 15-day basis.

Mr Sakthivel said that in order to help the domestic textile industry get over the glitches currently restraining it, the Minister of Textiles, Mr Shankarsinh Vaghela, has proposed to convene a meeting of major textile manufacturers, exporters and the chiefs of the various export promotion councils for a brainstorming session in the Capital on May 25.

Industry sources contend that the domestic textile industry could not match the success of China because the latter has economies of scale, an incredibly efficient infrastructure support, cheap export credit to industry and a flexible labour policy. The sources said that even the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme , after providing an interest subsidy of 5 per cent, has an interest cost of 6 per cent to the industry, which is not a viable strategy for financing capital-intensive modernisation and technological upgradation.

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