The Tiruppur Exporters’ Association (TEA) president Raja M Shanmugham recently urged the Indian Government to revert to the ‘Two Quarter Past Due’ concept (180 days) for non-performing asset (NPA) classification norms for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) instead of 90 days now as it will provide some breathing time for the units to recover and recoup. Adequate monitoring mechanism may be implemented even if the overdue crosses 90 days to avoid any siphoning off, Shanmugham said in a statement. He also requested for restructuring twice to have a leverage after considering the seasonal nature of the business.
The Rebate on State and Central Taxes and Levies was announced on March 7 this year for the garment sector to reimburse the embedded taxes and levies not covered under the goods and services tax (GST), but unfortunately, no online procedure has been implemented till now to receive the benefit in the form of duty credit scrip, he said.
For Tiruppur knitwear garment sector alone, the total pending till now is about Rs. 400 crore. He requested the textiles minister Smriti Irani to help expedite the clearing of pending claims at the earliest. The recent announcement of a slew of measures to boost the economy will bring business confidence to the crisis-ridden sectors including MSMEs, he said, adding that the Tiruppur knitwear business is poised to reach Rs. 1 trillion in the next three years.
