“Treat Tirupur as a naturally emerged apparel cluster and earmark cluster-specific funds accordingly to help the industry here thwart the intense competitions in the global apparel market and help realise the dream of ‘Make In India’ concept”.
This was one of the suggestions raised by the entrepreneurs in the cluster to the Union Government as the Finance Ministry had commenced its preparations of Union Budget for 2015-16 fiscal.
“Allocation of cluster-specific funds is the need of the hour for naturally developed clusters like Tirupur because such regions might be lacking some of the modern day requirements for retaining the export prowess on its own in the wake of new marketing challenges that emerge in the world apparel market,” Raja M. Shanmugam, a prominent apparel cluster and chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry (Tirupur district council) told The Hindu .
According to Mr. Shanmugam, the Union Government should give budgetary support to set up an incubation centre in Tirupur to help the industry develop more varieties of apparels and enlarge the product range.
MAT
Another major concern for the industry is the high rate of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) which presently hovers at around 20 per cent.
“Accelerated depreciation benefits given on certain investments are not fully becoming available to the industrialists just because of the higher slabs at which MAT was levied. So MAT could be brought down ideally to propel investment and growth in the clusters like Tirupur”, said S. Dhananjayan, an industrial consultant.
“Garments made of speciality fabrics will have market all through the year,” A. Sakthivel, president of Tirupur Exporters Association, pointed out.
