In a maiden initiative of its kind, the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi interacted with stakeholders of the trade & commerce sector and Heads of Indian Missions abroad through video conference yesterday. The Hon’ble Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Piyush Goyal and Hon’ble External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar were also present during the interaction. Besides the members of the Export Promotion Councils, the virtual meeting was also attended by Secretaries of various departments, state government officials, and Chambers of Commerce.
Under the mentorship of Shri Dhiraj Raichand Shah, Chairman, SRTEPC participated in the virtual meeting with Hon’ble Prime Minister from two Centres viz., Mumbai and Surat, Gujarat. At the Mumbai Centre which was organised at Ambassador hotel, was presided over by Shri Bhadresh Dodhia, Vice-Chairman wherein around 40 member – exporters attended. The Surat centre of SRTEPC was at Le Meridian Hotel and it was presided over by Shri Dhiraj Raichand Shah, Chairman, SRTEPC wherein around 60 member- exporters attended.
While addressing the virtual meeting with the industry stakeholders, heads of Indian Missions and others, the Hon’ble Prime Minister informed that this is the time for Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. Along with celebrating the 75th festival of independence, this is an opportunity to build a clear vision and roadmap for future India and Export Ambitions for which all the stakeholders play a major role. The Prime Minister lauded the stakeholders for this initiative and commended the enthusiasm, optimism and commitment shown by all of them to achieve our ambitious goals regarding exports. He reminded that one of the major reasons, India had the highest share in the global economy in the past was its strong trade and exports. He stressed on the importance of strengthening our exports in regaining our old share in the global economy.
The SRTEPC Chairman, Shri Dhiraj Raichand Shah, welcome the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on behalf of the manmade fibre textile fraternity, and congratulated for the initiative to interact with the textile stake holders including the MMF textile fraternity. He informed that Covid pandemic has turmoiled both production and exports. The pre-covid pandemic exports during 2019-20 were US$ 5.9 billion. During the peak covid pandemic period of 2020-21exports have declined around 21% to US$ 4.644 billion. However, the prevailing scenario shows some sign of improvement in exports. As compared to the pre-covid level during April-June 2020 exports have increased around 11% only in April-June 2021, Shri Dhiraj Raichand Shah, Chairman SRTEPC informed.
As per the communication from the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, export targets for the MMF textiles falling under the purview of this Council is US$ 6.12 billion for 2021-22. As suggested by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, the MMF textile fraternity and SRTEPC will try to achieve the export target pertaining to the MMF and MMF blended textiles viz,. Manmade fibre, MMF yarn, MMF fabrics and MMF made-ups, Shri Dhiraj Raichand Shah, mentioned.
In order to help the MMF textile segment achieve the above-mentioned export target, SRTEPC Head informed that the MMF textile fraternity would like to appeal for urgent policy-initiatives/ measures such as Announce the RoDTEP rates as early as possible and include entire MMF textile value chain under the Scheme, Timely refund the IGST and DBK benefits, Release the MEIS rewards to the exporters, Facilitate affordable logistics including availability of containers and bring down the Skyrocketing freight charges, Rectify the Inverted Duty Structure existing in the MMF textile Segment, Entire MMF textile value chain to be covered under the PLI Scheme and threshold limit of the PLI Scheme be fixed at 20% and include entire MMF textile value chain under the Scheme, Consider Extending the Interest Equalisation Scheme through the new FTP 2021-26 and extend the benefit of the Scheme to the Yarn Segment also, Double weightage to be given for the smaller exporters while considering merits for status as Star Export Houses, LC discounting by bank for post shipment and pre acceptance in order to reduce the cost. Most of the banks including SBI is not discounting the LCs which are even advised through them and sending the LCs for collection. This is creating huge cash flow challenge for exporters, Banks are charging hefty interest rates and bank margins during the forex transaction and government can bring some discipline and transparency, conclude the potential FTAs with EU and the UK, etc.
