As Uttar Pradesh, one of the leading Indian states, focuses on increasing exports to Rs. 3 lakh crore within next five years, the State Government has identified apparels as a crucial sector with a massive potential for growth.
Currently, the overall export of the state is around Rs. 1.21 lakh crore.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, a leading consultancy firm, carried a study at the behest of Invest UP and proposed infrastructural interventions in Gautam Budh Nagar and Kanpur.
The measures include setting up of an apparel park in Gautam Budh Nagar, common facility centres, laboratories by testing agencies, design labs and apparel manufacturing training centres, raw material depots and sourcing hubs.
The report also says that due to unfavourable tariff structures, UP loses out to Turkey, UK and Italy, which impose no tariff in export of house coats and similar synthetic fibre clothes to countries like Germany and UK.
Similarly, UP’s export of cotton T-shirts to countries like US, Germany, UK, France and Spain loses out to exports from Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Bangladesh, Turkey, Portugal etc, which have zero tariff.
In the apparel sector, for which Noida, Greater Noida and Kanpur are hubs, PWC has said that there is at least a 10 per cent difference in tariff rates between India and countries like Bangladesh, Turkey, Cambodia, etc., which make it unfavourable for India to compete with these countries.
