Textile ministry disputes DGCIS export data

The textiles ministry has disputed the figures of Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS), which show that textile exports from India have gone down by 24 per cent since the phasing out of quotas in January this year.

"That figure (given out by DGCIS) is wrong. Since the phasing out of quotas, we have not received a single complaint from exporters that their business is suffering. We have formed a committee that will come out with the actual figures in a month," textile minister, Shankersinh Vaghela told newspersons.

The figures with the ministry of textile show that exports from India have actually gone up by 20 per cent since January 2005, he said after inaugurating the three-day India international garment fair here.

Vaghela said, in next two years, textile exports from India will double.He said, a committee has been formed in the ministry which, would collect the data on textile exports and put out the actual figure in public by August.

According to textile secretary, R Poornalingam, the decline shown by DGCIS, which works under the directorate general of foreign trade, could be due to the fact that the entire data regarding the textile export has not been captured.

Earlier when the quotas were in place, Apparel Export Promotion Council (Apec), which used to distribute quotas to the exporters, maintained all the figures, but as it was no longer doing it, the collection of data becomes difficult.

DGCIS maintains data, based on the value of exports and this could have been slightly lower because of fall in prices of textile products in the international market after phasing-out of quotas, joint secretary (exports) in the ministry, Sudhir Bhargava said.

He said, another reason for gaps in data collection could be because all ports were not computerised.

"From all ports, for which we have data, the shipments have actually gone up substantially," Bhargava added. He said, 60 per cent of India's textile exports go to the US and EU and to the US, the exports were up 25 per cent while to EU, 10 per cent.

Bhargava said, around Rs 20,000 crore would be invested in the textile sector this year and if growth was not there, the investments too would not happen.Agreeing with the ministry, Apec chairman, A Saktivel said, response to the garment fair has been overwhelming.

When compared to last year, this time, the area over which it has spread, has doubled to 7,000 square metres and the number of participants have gone up by 20 per cent, to 360.

He said, number of overseas buyers that are expected to come this time would be 700, of which, 386 have registered with Apec.