Tirupur industrialists' have high expectations from Central Budget 2022 and have subsequently requested for the formation of a Knitwear Board in Tirupur.
Tirupur: Industrialists in Tirupur have high expectations from the Central Budget for the year 2022 and have subsequently requested for the formation of a Knitwear Board in Tirupur. They have also asked for the announcement of the Knitwear Board, opening more Free Trade Regime(FTA) and facilitating immediate release of IGST funds.
Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA), President, Raja M Shanmugan has put forth a set of five requests:
1. Formation of a Knitwear Board functioning from Tirupur.
With Tirupur city holding nearly 60% of the country’s knitwear production, the TEA President stated that the board would help bridge the gap between the policymakers and the happening centre. This will in turn have faster growth in business and the clusters can be replicated elsewhere in India. Further, this contemplated Board will have R&D facility to help the involved MSMEs to sustain its growth, in tune with the world market's dynamics.
2. A labour-supportive infrastructure development.
The TEA President stated that most migrant workers are employed in these clusters and hence a decent accommodation has to be provided to their families. For this purpose, he requested an incentivised scheme like giving IT benefits to those companies which provide housing for their labour on subsidized rent or with ownership rights. He demanded more attention to the infrastructure development program by dovetailing the existing schemes along with the State Government and the industries
3. Announcement to ban the raw cotton exports from our country to our competitors.
4. A 11% duty on Cotton imports.
5. Removal of cotton from the list of commodities which facilitates a derivative trade through the stock exchanges to create an artificial demand, which really affects the industry and the country's economy.
The Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF) Convenor, D Prabhu opined that “Apart from the industry’s expectation about removal of import duty on cotton to bring a level playing field to the entire value chain of textile manufacturing, we expect some policy directions in strengthening the efforts on the FTA front.” He stated that the industry expects that 2022 will be the start for FTAs and India needs to send a signal as one of the most progressive economy and open for a more free trade regime. He requested opening up of a few sectors to other countries so as to gain market reach to our strong products. "We expect the Budget to send some strong signals in this regard," he added.
Laghu Udyog Bharati's State General Secretary, M Sivakumar requested for the formation of a Knitwear Board and stated that the Board will help to effectively carry out various initiatives and projects since the knitwear sector is growing rapidly and has become an ‘epitome’ of MSMEs.
“Knitwear Apparel Manufacture is a rapidly growing sector with a potential to generate millions of jobs in the near future. But, there is no specialized or focused agency at the Government level to look after and handhold the industry in its pursuit of rapid growth. Just as the TEA President mentioned earlier, the Knitwear industry accounts to 60% of the country’s knitwear production and still has a lot of potential to grow significantly. This Board can act as a catalyst for the growth of this industrial segment and also across the nation," opined M Sivakumar.
He added that the Knitwear Board shall be mandated to accomplish the following objectives:
1. Providing a research wing facilitator which would help for product diversification and facilitate Micro and Small units to make use of it as a commercially viable factor.
2. It should act as a catalyst. The successful Tirupur cluster formula could be well-documented based on various case studies and help the industry to spread at a pan India level in all labour rich states, thereby providing millions of jobs to job seekers and help thousands of sprouting entrepreneurs to start their own ventures.
A further request was made related to Imports and Exports, since they were facing difficulties in receiving the IGST Refunds.
"There are certain issues in getting back the IGST paid sums across the country. It is necessary to find a permanent solution to the exporters by relieving all agents involved in closing the EGM errors. It is suggested to keep a deadline of one month from the date of shipment and to give sufficient powers to the AC/ DC Customs to take approvals from higher authorities, wherever required and to close the EGM errors with available documentary evidences to facilitate immediate release of IGST Refunds. Options can be kept available on the screen to the authorities to make suitable notes and remarks on the reasons for removal of ERRORS and the need of releasing IGST Refunds," he added.