In a statement issued recently, Raja M Shanmugham, President, TEA said the All Industry Rate of Duty Drawback usually announced in the month of September / October has not been still announced this year and mentioned about the news items appeared in the press which had stated that the Government has been delaying the announcement since the Rupee has depreciated against Dollar.
Raja M Shanmugham said after softening of Crude oil prices, the Rupee has been now in the declining trend against Dollar, from peak value of Rs. 74.35 per Dollar on 10th October 2018 to Rs. 69.60 per Dollar yesterday (30th November 2018). We feel that the trend will continue in the coming days also. He pointed out that the benefit of Rupee depreciation has been short lived and already the knitwear exporters are feeling the pinch of it.
Shanmugham said in the half yearly period of current Financial Year, the total knitwear exports from our country has recorded Rs. 26,056 cr against Rs. 29,210 for the corresponding period in the previous year 2017-18, a decline of 10.8 per cent. While calculating knitwear exports from Tirupur for the same six months period reveals that the exports has declined from Rs. 13,600 cr to Rs. 12,100 cr, a negative growth of 11 per cent. He pointed out that after implementation of GST to the garment sector from October 2017 onwards, only after one year, i.e. in the month of October 2018, the exports have clocked positive figure compared to the previous year.
After thanking Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Union Minister of Finance for the RBI announcement of increasing the Interest Equalisation rate from 3 per cent to 5 per cent on Pre and Post Shipment Export Rupee Credit from 2nd November 2018 onwards, Raja M Shanmugham said he has made an appeal to the Hon’ble Finance Minister to immediately announce the revised All Industry Rate of Duty Drawback for garment sector by increasing from 2 per cent to 4.5 per cent and help the garment sector to overcome the crisis and enhance exports including employment.
Raja M Shanmugham said he has also sent a requisition letters to Smriti Irani, Hon’ble Union Minster of Textiles, Rajiv Kumar, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance and Raghvendra Singh IAS., Secretary, Ministry of Textiles to help for revision of All Industry Rates of Duty Drawback.
