AEPC appeals to FM to direct banks to pass on rate cut, recast their debt

While apparel exporters believe the time is ripe to penetrate deeper into the export market, they perceive that the lack of support from banks –be it in recasting debt or passing on rate cut to end users – has continued to hamper growth.

A Sakthivel, Acting Chairman, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), while thanking Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for the initiatives such as insisting banks not to declare stressed loan account of MSMEs as NPA till March 2020 and recast their debt said “banks seem disinterested in recasting the debt and continue to categorise loans to MSMEs as NPA”.

Many units would be eligible to run if allowed debt reconstruction with additional working capital, evaluated and sanctioned on merit basis. Reduction of powers to the branch heads is causing enormous delay in sanctioning of loans, he felt.

Export is a time-sensitive business, Indian apparel exporters can capitalise on the trade uncertainty between the US and China, as many US companies have started to look at India, Sakthivel said. He appealed to Sitharaman to instruct banks to support the MSMEs from the deteriorating situation.

He further stressed the need to consider job-working units that cater to export manufacturing companies on priority basis as without them, exports would not grow.

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