Apparel Exports Fall 7.6%, Exporters Demand More Sops

Economy

Apparel Exports Fall 7.6%, Exporters Demand More Sops

Concerned over the declining apparel exports, Ludhiana's garment exporters are now demanding that the government should lower the lending rates for them and roll out new incentive schemes, else the fall will continue. According to the recent data released by Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S), there has been a decline of 7.60% in India's RMG exports in the financial year 2017-18 as compared to 2016-17.

As per the data, the total exports of RMG from India was Rs 1,16,554 crore in 2016-17 which has fallen to Rs 1,07,698.80 crore in 2017-18. Alarmed over the fall, prominent garment exporters of Ludhiana attended a meeting organised by Apparel Exporters Promotion Council (AEPC) and discussed their next course of action.

Speaking on the issue, Harish Dua, president, Knitwear and Apparel Exporters Organisation, and executive member of AEPC, said, "In the nine months, a huge fall has been registered in India's RMG exports. Various reasons are responsible for this grim situation, the biggest being the non-seriousness of the Union government to solve issues concerning the trade. It's been months now since various incentives and subsidies available to us were withdrawn and reduced, but ever since no new initiatives have been taken by the government to revive exports." Dua also said, "We once again request the government, especially the ministry of commerce to start new schemes to encourage exporters and also introduce incentives to support us."

Narinder Chugh, a permanent invitee to AEPC, said, From the past one year, the growth of garment exports has suffered a big blow, but we can overcome the problem if the government takes some initiatives such as reduction of the rate of interest on bank loans for exporters to 2%.