 "Tirupur knitwear exporters asks Textile Ministry to set up Rs 300 crore fund")
Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA's) President A Sakthivel has submitted a Memorandum to Sanjay Kumar Panda, Textile Secretary in the exporters meet held in IKFA Complex, Tirupur on Tuesday.
In the memorandum it was stated that though the total textile exports from India has been $35 billion, despite this, Commerce Ministry is providing only Rs 6 crore for the market promotion activities through schemes like Market Access Initiatives (MAI) and Market Development Assistance (MDA).
Instead of going through Commerce Ministry, Textile ministry should have a separate fund of at least Rs 300 crore for market promotional activities, mainly for participation in the international fairs conducted outside India and also international fairs being held in India, said in the memorandum.
The industry has also asked for a separate chapter for export sector is required in Monterey Policy to enhance the competitiveness and the sector should be delinked with the base rate system being followed by the banks."As the base rate is the minimum lending rate, pre shipment and post shipment export credit in Indian Rupee has to be given at the Base Rate itself. Till a separate chapter for export is announced, the Bank credit rate given to exporters may be fixed at seven per cent as the interest rates prevailing in our competing Countries are lower than our banks rates".
Stressing on Free Trade Agreement, the Association has said the knitwear exports to European union is more than 50 per cent and early signing of FTA with European union would lead to increase India's market share in European union. Sakthivel noted that as of now, Bangladesh, being least developed country , is enjoying the duty free status and the total exports from the Bangladesh has reached about $ 26 billion against our exports of $15 billion. The industry also asked to sign a FTA with Canada.