FIEO urges to implement export package

Chennai, July 1: The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) today urged the Finance Ministry to implement the export package, which was unveiled by Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath on June 13.

Talking to newspersons here after the Management Committee meeting, FIEO President Ganesh Kumar Gupta said "we expect the Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram to announce the proposed export package before August 2007".

If immediate steps were not taken to offset the erosion of competitiveness of our exports, the export industry will lose US Dollar 12.5 billion of export in the current fiscal, he pointed out adding besides, it will lead to a slowdown of exports, closure of units and loss of eight million jobs across the country in various sector.

Referring to a survey conducted by the FIEO, Mr Gupta said about 15 per cent of the units would retrench 50 per cent of their workforce, 21 per cent of units would lay off 30-50 per cent of their strength and 18 per cent would cut the strength by 10 to 30 per cent.

Around 46 per cent of the respondents, he said, were restructuring and reducing manpower in line with their order requirements.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Coir, Silk Textile, Leather, Synthetic and Rayon, Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Carpet, Cashew and Handloom sectors to discuss the fall-out of rupee appreciation.

UNI