Indian Textile And Apparel Exports Fall 13% To Rs 186 Billion In January

Economy

Indian Textile And Apparel Exports Fall 13% To Rs 186 Billion In January

The sharp decline in exports of cotton textiles by 16%, apparel by 14% and man-made textiles by 7% contributed to the performance

Export of textiles and apparel have been falling every month despite the government's efforts to give the segment a boost. Data compiled by the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) showed textile and apparel exports fell 13% to Rs 186 billion in January, against Rs 215 billion in the corresponding month last year.

Textile export slumped 13% to Rs 97 billion from Rs 111 billion in the year-ago period; apparel export declined 14% to Rs 89 billion. With the rupee appreciation and preferential treatment given to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) by importing nations, the government needs to ease refund of Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) and on Return of State Levies (ROSL), says the trade.

Also, there is need to ensure that importing countries treat exporters at par with their counterparts in LCDs."The sharp decline in exports of cotton textiles by 16%, apparel by 14% and man-made textiles by 7% contributed to the performance. The share of textile and apparel export declined to 12% in January 2018 against 14% in January 2017," said Sanjay Jain, chairman, CITI. Textile and apparel export between April 2017 and January 2018, first 10 months of the financial year recorded a decline of 4%, to Rs 1,871 billion from Rs 1,940 billion a year ago.

However, import of yarn, fabric and made-ups rose 15% to Rs 99 billion from Rs 86 billion."Effective import duties after GST have come down sharply, making imports cheaper for the domestic industry by 15-20%," said Jain. The government had in the Union Budget announced a 19% increase in a special package from Rs 60 billion earlier. While announcing the package in 2016, the government had linked this to employment generation and increase in exports.

"The government needs to address core issues first, with immediate release of IGST which remained blocked since July 1, 2017. This is choking working capital," said Ujwal Lahoti, chairman of the Cotton Textile Export Promotion Council and chairman of Lahoti Overseas. "The industry needs immediate relief in the form of a minimum 2% on the Merchandise Exporters from India Scheme on cotton yarn and a ROSL package for fabrics and cotton yarn, to retain competitiveness in the global market. Also, the government should immediately levy customs duty across the value chain to restrict imports," added Jain.

'GST, note ban to blame for textile units' collapse'

Meanwhile, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said the Centre's move to implement demonetisation and the poor implementation of GST led to the collapse of the textile industry in Tirupur.

He was pointing out to a report prepared by All India Professionals Congress, which showed job losses and closing down of units in the Tamil Nadu textile hub. Tharoor was speaking on 'India in the 21st Century', organised by The South India Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

"At a time when Vietnam and Bangladesh are growing their textile exports, we have a key hub that has collapsed," he said, adding that the ruling government had a lot to answer for, but continued to remain in denial mode.