At a time when a spiralling rupee has been troubling apparel exporters, the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) has welcomed the Centre's decision to restore the duty credit scrip benefit of two per cent under the market linked focus product scheme on export of apparel to the US and EU.
Talking about how the move will benefit the industry, Shishir Jaipuria, Chairman, CITI said, "Indian apparel exports, especially from the SME units to the US and EU markets suffered during the recession period on account of stiff competition from Vietnam and Bangladesh and to some extent China. The move would help Indian garment exporters in their efforts to recapture the import shares they have lost in these markets because of the global economic slowdown."
According to industry players, apparel exports are expected to touch $ 45 billion figure by 2015.
"Our garment industry had serious pressure from the decline in imports by Western countries, since a whopping 60 percent of our garment exports go to these markets. The restoration of the incentive will help the industry to improve its market shares in the US and EU and will also encourage them, by improving their comfort level, to diversify into the other potential world markets," he added.
Moreover, according to Jaipuria similar incentive needs to be extended also to the home textile industry, which is similarly placed in terms of the level of value addition and has also lost import shares in the Western markets.