Exports from Tirupur up 19% during first 9 months

Value of shipments touches Rs 15,000 cr; exporters hope to achieve Rs 36,000 cr by 2016-17

Exports from Tirupur, the knitwear hub of India, touched around Rs 15,000 crore during the first nine months of the current fiscal year (April-December 2014-15). This tiny town in southern Tamil Nadu houses around 7,000 units, 85 per cent of which are small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

A Sakthivel, president of the Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA), said that this export figure has been arrived at after consolidating the bank-wise export data collected from banks.

He added that exports rose by around 19 per cent in rupee terms and by 18 per cent in dollar terms, compared to the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

Exporters are hopeful that by the end of March 31, Tirupur’s exports would cross Rs 21,000 crore, if the same growth trend is maintained over the January-March quarter. They reckon that by 2016-17, exports could reach Rs 36,000 crore, double the figure of Rs 18,000 crore achieved in 2013-14.

Export data in rupees crore
	Apr-June	June-Sept	Sept-Dec	Total
2011-12	3,378	3,254	3,499	10,131
2012-13	3,453	3,213	3,437	10,103
2013-14	4,147	4,509	3,935	12,591
2014-15	5,078	4,958	4,964	15,000

Exporters have submitted a pre-Budget Memorandum to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and requested him to address specific issues like announcement of three per cent interest subvention on rupee export credit, import of specialty fabrics without payment of duty under Export Performance Certificate Scheme. Under this scheme, a maximum of three per cent of the licence may be allowed for import of fabrics without keeping restriction of 1,000 metre, as synthetic garments have market throughout the year globally.

Exporters have also requested the government to expedite FTAs with EU and Canada.