The various unique COVID pandemic relief/safety measures and policy interventions have enabled India to become the fastest growing economy even during the pandemic lockdown period and accelerate it further in the post-COVID period. They have enabled India to achieve US $ 418 billion merchandise trade for the year 2021-22 surpassing the target of US $ 400 billion, 9 days ahead of the schedule. India could record the highest ever monthly merchandise export of US$ 40.38 billion and exports over US$ 30 billion for 12 consecutive months in FY 2021-22. The Government has been taking various pathbreaking policy initiatives to address the structural issues that have been stalling the potential progress of exports, especially the issues relating to raw material, taxation and tariff barriers. The Government has created a history in concluding the bilateral agreement with Mauritius, UAE and Australia in a short span of time, the shortest ever time taken to conclude trade agreements by any country in the world.
Ravi Sam, Chairman, SIMA
In a Press Release issued here today, Mr. Ravi Sam, Chairman, The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA), has lauded the NDA Government led by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri. Narendra Modi for constantly creating history and breaking the record on policy fronts and thereby enabling India to become the largest and fastest growing economy in the world. He has appreciated the strenuous efforts taken by the Government especially the Hon’ble Minister of Textiles, Shri. Piyush Goyal for giving major thrust to boost the textiles & clothing sector and enhancing its exports. He has said that certain pathbreaking policy initiatives such as GST, RoSCTL, RoDTEP, removal of anti-dumping duty on PTA, MEG, PSF, VSF, Acrylic Fibre, etc., have enabled the industry to achieve US $ 39.73 billion exports (estimated) during 2021-22, 18% higher than the exports recorded in the previous year, accounting around 10% of the total merchandise exports. Mr. Ravi Sam has said that measures like One District, One Product (ODOP) and Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme have created awareness about exports at grassroot level. He has said that the unprecedented crisis like COVID pandemic and Russia-Ukraine War could not diminish the growth and spirit of team India.
Mr. Ravi Sam has said that the cotton textile industry could exceed the export target by 25%, by recording US$ 15.06 billion as against the target of US$ 13.61 billion fixed for the year 2021-22 by the Government. He has added that the Government having realized the potential for further growth in the cotton textile value chain, has increased the target by 25% and fixed at US $ 16.96 billion for the year 2022-23 when compared to the target fixed for the year 2021-22.
SIMA Chairman has thanked and appreciated the Hon’ble Prime Minister and Hon’ble Minister of Textiles for concluding Indo-UAE trade agreement and now Indo-Australian trade agreement in a short span of time that reflect the depth of confidence created by India with both the countries. He has said that the trust and reliability created by India with various trade partners enabled the country to make faster progress in concluding the trade agreements with countries such as UK, Canada and other countries. Mr. Ravi Sam has said that the estimated bilateral trade of US $ 50 billion in five years would enable the textile industry to gain major advantage especially for the import of high quality cotton produced by Australia and export of high value added textiles and clothing products to Australia (7 to 10 times value addition) and thereby create new jobs and fetch more revenue to the Government.
SIMA Chairman has thanked Hon’ble Prime Minister and Hon’ble Minister of Textiles for allowing 3 lakh bales of duty-free import of cotton having staple length 28 mm & above from Australia under the ECTA. He has said that this has given a big sigh of relief in the current scenario when the country is facing shortage of quality raw material and unable to compete with countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam, Pakistan, China, etc., owing to 11% import duty levied on cotton. He has stated that this cotton would greatly help the cotton knitwear clusters like Tirupur to boost its exports and also bring some stability in the cotton price that has been steeply increasing since the beginning of the cotton season. Mr. Ravi Sam has hoped that the Government would soon allow duty-free import of cotton to mitigate the cotton crisis and enable the industry to achieve the target.
