Industry insiders perceive that the newly elected UPA Government with Dr Manmohan Singh at its helm would be able to solve the ongoing major problems caused by the global meltdown and make rapid progress.
Welcoming a stable, progressive and export-friendly Government at the Centre, Mr A. Sakthivel, President, Tirupur Exporters’ Association, said he expected the situation to improve from the coming quarter.
The situation would improve if the Government addressed the issues faced by the industry he said, sharing the exporters’ wish-list.
Wish-list
TEA has urged the newly elected Government to provide a level playing field to compete with China, Vietnam and Bangladesh among others. “These countries have increased VAT refund to 17 per cent to support exporters. We should at least consider increasing the duty drawback rates/DEPB by 5 per cent, considering the measures taken by our competitors,” he said.
The association has also sought income-tax exemption for three years; exemption from the purview of Fringe Benefit Tax, service tax, considering the delay in getting service tax refund and the paper work involved in making an application for such refund; extension of the interest subvention scheme till March 2012; creation of an Export Development Fund (EDF) for MSME exporters with a minimum corpus of Rs 5,000 crore; a 200 per cent deduction on investment made in plant and machinery (for expansion and modernisation of manufacturing facilities); extension of the existing Focus Market scheme, Focus Product scheme and Market-linked Focus for three years for knitwear garments so that exporters could undertake country-wise diversification strategy to boost the country’s exports.
Mr Sakthivel has appealed for implementation of the Marine Discharge Project, which would help resolve the problems of the dyeing units in Tamil Nadu permanently.
Source : Business Line