TEA urges Centre to bail out exporting unit

Tirupur, Nov 12 (UNI) Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) today urged the Union Government to bail out the exporting units from the present financial crisis and suggested various measures to be taken by the government to save the industry.

In a representation to the Union Government TEA president A Sakthivel said the ongoing financial crisis in United states and EU had started taking a toll on the garment exports too.

He said already there was 30 per cent drop in orders which might lead to job cuts of about 20,000. Due to this crisis, the exporting units are reducing the working hours from ten to eight and implementing five days per week instead of six days per week, he added.

He urged the Union Government to bring the duty to 11 per cent which is currently given to cotton knitwear exporters at 8.8 per cent.

Requesting to fix the interest rate for packing credit at six per cent, he said as most of the exporters had gone for the forward booking, the recent depreciation of rupee against dollar was not immediately beneficial to the them.

Last year, due to appreciation of rupee against dollar, the exporters incurred losses and found difficult to meet the statutory financial commitments. In this crucial period, the industry needed support from the banks. It may also be noted that due to reduction of orders and delayed payment, they request the banks to give a moratorium for two years for repayment of Term loan, he said.

Urging for compensation to state levies and transaction cost to the tune of three per cent, the TEA president urged the Government to make procurement of diesel duty free as power is one of the major problems of garment units in Tamil Nadu and exporting units are resorting for captive power generation using diesel as fuel.

UNI KS AK NS1956