The man-made fibre textile industry has contributed ₹1,016 crore towards PM Cares Fund and those of chief ministers of various States, besides providing hospital facilities, food and personal protective equipment (PPE).
While contributing to the relief fund, the Synthetic and Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council has sought a special economic package to make up for the huge losses incurred due to the cancellation of orders.
Ronak Rughani, Chairman, SRTEPC, said unemployment is a serious concern in the man-made fibre textile segment, which requires policy initiatives to resume production and bring stability after the havoc unleashed by Covid-19.
The industry needs special export incentive of 3 per cent on fibre and yarn, 4 per cent on fabric, 5 per cent on made-ups for at least six months or till the impact of the coronavirus subsides and global markets stabilise, he said.
Immediate needs
Madhu Sudhan Bhageria, Chairman and Managing Director, Filatex India, said the immediate requirement is to allow the manufacturing facilities to function with 50 per cent capacity, gradually lift the restrictions, and create an environment for hassle-free export of produce by different departments involved in the system.
Ensuring good banking system support by providing moratoriums, enhanced working capital facilities and ensuring all duty refunds from the government would go a long way to ease the life of man-made fibre players, he said.
The SRTEPC urged the government to correct the inverted duty structure under GST and include the entire man-made fibre textile value chain such as fibres, yarns, fabrics and made-ups under RoSCTL, MEIS and RoDTEP schemes.
It wants the government to extend one-year moratorium till next March 31 for repayment of loans to banks and NBFCs. It also also sought online processing of all documents needed for export shipments besides providing compensation for cancelled export orders.
Bangladesh model
Seeking relief like the one provided by Bangladesh, SRTEPC said the Bangladesh government is transferring three months’ salary directly to employees’ account through banks and the said amount is to be repaid by the companies at 2 per cent interest in 18 instalments in two years.
In view of force majeure situation, it said customs should authorise shipping lines to load export containers on the basis of verification of LEO (let export order) against specific shipping bill in the ICEGATE (Indian Customs Electronic Gateway) after CHA (customs house agent) gives required details through e-mail.
The period of export payment realisation should be increased, from 270 to 365 days, freight charges should be reduced to the pre-coronavirus level and availability of containers for export shipments should be ensured, it said.
Further, all pending dues under export promotion schemes should be released on an urgent basis or soft loan equivalent to the dues extended.
Textile companies should be allowed to restructure loans for one year without any additional charges by banks for provisioning and the RBI should relax NPA norms for six months so that no default will be termed as an NPA account, it said.