If there is one market which remains totally unaffected by the current recession, then it is the garment markets of Howrah and Metiaburuj. These two markets together cater to the need of the rural population in West Bengal, as well as the Eastern and North Eastern states. Now that the festival season is just four weeks away, the two markets are thriving with activities. Both these markets engage in wholesale trade, and buyers from other states are flocking here to purchase readymade garments at bargain price.
Every week hundreds of trucks loaded with bales of readymade garments are leaving for distant places from Metiaburuj and Howrah. The last week's sales tax collection from the Howrah Haat (a conglomeration of 11 markets) alone was to the tune of Rs13.5 lakh, according to Rakhal Chowdhury, the secretary of Howrah Haat Samannay Samiti. By arrangement with the state government his Samiti is also responsible for collecting the sales tax. According to traders, the Metiaburuz market yielded another 8-10 lakhs in the same week. At 4% rate of sales tax, the total volume of trade in one week in these two markets comes to around 5.75 crore.
If we reckon that these two markets are kept open only for two days a week, and that a good number of small traders are still not required to pay sales tax, the total volume of trade in these two markets is quite substantial.
Alamgir Fakir, the secretary of Metiaburuj's Bangla Readymade Garment Manufacturers and Traders Welfare Association, told Business Standard,"This year Eid and Durga Puja festival will be held in the fourth week of September, so both Metiaburuj and Howrah wholesale garment markets are busy with the festive season buying from the first week of August onwards."
The wholesalers of both these markets are of the view that there is no downward trend in the sales. "We have not felt any impact of the global recession," opined Rakhal Chowdhury, who has been doing business from Howrah Haat for the last 45 years. Last year (2008-09) the total sales tax collection from Howrah Haat was around Rs.2.97 crore. Going by the present trend in business, Chowdhury expects this year's sales tax collection would be far in excess of Rs. 3 crore.
In Howrah Haat's 11 markets there are around 20-25,000 traders registered with the association. Besides them there are another 10,000 unregistered small traders who are doing business in the fringe areas of the markets. In Metiaburuj, another 30,000 manufacturer cum traders are engaged in this business. According to Alamgir Fakir, in Metiaburuj, most of the traders have dual identity as they also run units to manufacture the garments with the help of tailors located in various parts of south
Bengal. "Every year we keep a tab on the readymade garment market in Mumbai for the latest fashions, and then customise those to suit our need," said Chowdhury. The key to the proliferation in business is to keep the manufacturing cost at a very low level and also to sell the product keeping a small margin for them. "Even today we can sell a shirt or a shalwar-kurta at a very low price," confided he.
Since the trade in this wholesale readymade garment industry is heavily depended on extending credit facility to the buyers, the traders are worried. Alamgir Fakir explained, "This year agriculture is badly hit because of drought. That means the payment will be late".
Ironically, the entire garment industry in Howrah and Metiaburuj hardly gets any access to the bank credit. For that they are dependent on the moneylenders. Here, the wholesale cloth merchants from whom they buy the cloth provide them with the required credit. "Basically, we buy cloths from the wholesalers in Burrabazar on credit, and then engage our workers to stitch the garments according to prescribed designs, and then bring that in the market."
The small margin they keep for themselves is the reason for the thriving business which attracts wholesale traders of readymade garments from far off places like Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur, Bihar, North Bengal, Sikkim and Orissa.
