Apparel exporters ask govt to provide more sops in FTP

The Apparel Export Promotion Council today asked the government to provide more incentives, including interest subsidy and increased duty sops, in the upcoming Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) review on August 23.

"We want the government to extend 2 per cent interest subvention for one year with retrospective effect from April 1, 2010," the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) said in a statement today.

The council has also requested the government to increase duty drawback to 13.55 per cent from 8.8 per cent on freight on board.

Duty drawback is a partial refund of duties paid on the import of goods that are further processed and then exported.

The government is likely to announce additional sops for sectors like textiles and handicrafts, which have not been performing well.

The AEPC has also asked the government to extend the Market Linked Focus Product Scheme for export to the US and EU, as these markets are still not showing much improvement.

Garment exports declined by 13.5 per cent to $833 million in June year-on-year.

The sector was hit hard by the global economic recession.

The apparel industry provides employment to about 7 million people, out of which almost half are engaged in the export sector.

The Textiles Ministry has set a $12 billion apparel export target for the current fiscal.