Knitwear exporters hope for remission of duties, taxes in today’s Union Budget

Coimbatore

“When exporters are taking efforts to revive from COVID-19 impact, the increase in prices of cotton yarn coupled with its intermittent supply in the last two months has triggered a reversal of trend. The conducive manufacturing eco system has got affected and exporting units are literally struggling to sustain in the business. The sector is vulnerable to several internal and external economic challenges that affect its overall performance,” said Raja M Shanmugham, president of Tirupur Exporters Association.

A representation has also been made in this regard to the Union government ahead of the Budget. Already, the economic crisis caused due to COVID-19 impact led to a sharp decline in exports from Tirupur in the month of March 2020 and also the first quarter of current financial year 2020-21. However, the announcement of various financial measures helped the knitwear garment sector to revive and exports reached normal trends like in the corresponding period of previous year.

“We are hopeful that knitwear exports from Tirupur will clock Rs 24,000 crores in the current financial year as against Rs 27,280 crores recorded in the previous year of 2019-20, with a negative growth of 12 per cent. The export of garment in place of yarn will not only fetch more forex earnings, but also generate additional employment, that too for women workers hailing from rural areas,” he added.

The Tirupur knitwear sector comprising 95 per cent of MSME’s is contributing 60 per cent of production and has an export share of 51 per cent across the country.