New Delhi, Mar 18  ( KNN)  Hurt by the declining exports, apparel exporters have appealed to the Finance Ministry  to expeditiously release about Rs 500 crore duty drawback benefits due to them. 

Chairman of Apparel Export Promotion Council, A Sakthivel, in a letter to Chairperson of Central Board of Excise and Customs, Praveen Mahajan said that all industry duty drawback rates for exports of garments have been withheld.

“Non-release of duty drawback has in fact led to substantial reduction in the manufacturing activities, leading to loss of exports. In view of this, it is requested that all industry duty drawback rates may be released without any further delay so that exporters may not fail in payment of Govt. dues, salaries to workers etc,” he said.

The duty drawback scheme is a refund of the customs or excise duty paid by an exporter on inputs used for manufacturing the finished goods that he has exported.  Under this scheme the government refunds duties on imported inputs for export items.

Apparel Exporters believe that immediate release of duty drawback will pull the exports and contain the inflating current account deficit- which is also a constant worry for the government.

India's apparel exports are expected to be flat at USD 14 billion in 2012-13 as there is a slowdown in demand in markets like the US and Europe . (KNN)