The Hindu : Business : 7.5 % drop in garment exports

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Wednesday, Nov 04, 2009
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7.5 % drop in garment exports

Special Correspondent

AEPC reiterates demand for a hike in duty drawback rates for cotton garment exports

NEW DELHI: After a ‘tiny’ recovery of 1.9 per cent in August, garment exports are back in the negative territory in September, according to figures released by the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) here on Tuesday.

Exports of garments were worth $652 million only in September against $702 million in the same month last year, a drop of 7.52 per cent.

With this, garment exports in the first half of the current fiscal have fallen by 7.3 per cent as compared to the previous year. In absolute terms, exports between April and September this year were only $4.84 billion against $5.22 billion in the year-ago period.

AEPC Chairman, Rakesh Vaid, reiterated the council’s demand for a hike in the duty drawback rates for cotton garment exports to 13.25 per cent from the present between 8 per cent and 10 per cent and a corresponding increase for blended and manmade fibre garments. “In the $373-billion global clothing industry, India’s share has fallen to 2.6 per cent from 3.3 per cent until a few years ago. To [even] retain the current share, the country needs to export $18 billion worth of clothes annually, which requires 2.7 million additional manpower and investments of $30 billion”.

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