Varanasi carpet industry hopes for budget sops

Varanasi, June 29 (ANI): Carpet traders and weavers in Uttar Pradesh are hoping that the forthcoming annual budget will offer some sops to them.

Traders and weavers in the state's Bhadohi district, which is famous for hand knit carpets and hand tufted carpets, said they wanted the government to help them regain markets lost due to recession.

In the wake of the global economic slowdown, the small exporters are being wiped out while large exporters are striving to survive.

"As far as carpet industry is concerned it does most of the business with America and Europe and the recession has badly affected the trade. So, our demand is that the government should give us grants to look for more markets abroad," said Ashok Kapoor, a carpet exporter.

The traders also said that government should reconsider taxes levied on them.

"The labour cost has increased 25-30 percent. In this scenario how are we going to compete in the market? Government wants us not to add the local taxes it levies on us on the export rates but if the taxes are levied to us then we will carry that forward as our cost," said Anurag Chandra, a carpet exporter.

Varanasi is famous for its hand woven carpets the world over.

The carpet industry, being highly labour intensive and decentralized, is an important source of employment and a foreign exchange earner.

According to the estimates, there are 1215 carpet manufacturing units in India, out of which 190 are in the organized sector and the rest are in small-scale industry sector. (ANI)