FIEO seeks govt's intervention to resolve deadlock over exports benefits for Garment and Made-ups

New Delhi, Feb 11 (KNN) The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has sought government's intervention to resolve the deadlock over export benefits for the garment and made-ups exporters.

FIEO President Sharad Kumar Saraf while highlighting the acute liquidity problem faced by apparel and made-ups exporters, particularly those in Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) said the Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL) scheme was not implemented in entire 2019 and Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) also stopped from August 1, 2019 for apparel and made-ups sectors.

''This is a fatal blow to the apparels and made-ups industry, which is one of the largest employment generation industry particularly supporting the women workers. Huge funds of exporters are now blocked under this scheme for no fault of theirs,'' FIEO said in a statement.

Exporters of these products were surprised to see the gazette notification from MoT dated 14/1/2020 announcing one time additional ad-hoc incentive of 1% to offset difference between RoSL & MEIS and RoSCTL from 7/3/2019 to 31/12/2019.

This is completely contradictory to what was already announced by the Government and factored by the industry to maintain their competitiveness in view of fierce competition. Many of them have paid statutory taxes also on RoSTL and MEIS benefits said Sharaf.

''We are now informed that apparel exporters will not get 2 per cent MEIS even though the announced earlier. It is very unfortunate that the commitments are being ignored.

To make the matter worst, Saraf said, DGFT is now demanding the refund of MEIS paid between 7/3/2019 and 31/7/2019. This is not only unfair but also legally untenable because the policy once announced cannot be changed retrospectively,'' Sharaf added.

Later, FIEO President added that the apparel industry has been subjected to tremendous hardship. In all fairness the government must honour the commitment made to the exporters. We are already fast losing our business to other countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh etc.

''The industry would have grown atleast by 15 per cent due to China – US trade war and now due to deadly virus in China observed FIEO Chief. He requested Textile Minister to intervene to address the plight of exporters,'' the statement added.

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