The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) has asked the Government to announce a relief package for the textile and apparel segment in order to mitigate the crisis they are facing amidst the Coronavirus outbreak.
CITI has urged the Government to help the capital and labour-intensive textile industry by reducing the bank interest rate, extending soft loans as also giving moratorium for repayment of principal and interest amount to the banks for four quarters.
The industry employs a surplus of over 105 million people and also earns an amount equivalent of around US $ 40 billion forex, besides substantial revenue under GST and other taxes.
T.Rajkumar, Chairman, CITI, said in a press statement“The spread of the virus in China, which later got spread to EU and USA, has majorly impacted us as they are huge markets for Indian textile products.”
He also maintained that the demand for the textile products and also the domestic sales have come to a halt due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
Even as he appreciated the directions by the Government to close all the malls and retail outlets in order to curb the spread of the virus, at an early stage, he said that it has resulted in the substantial reduction in the sales of the domestic textiles and clothing.
Further, CITI has also asked for exemption of all raw materials, dyes and chemicals, intermediaries, spares, accessories, etc., from anti-dumping duty and basic customs duty.
He asserted, “Include cotton yarn and fabrics under Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL), Interest Equalisation Scheme (IES) and Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) benefits with immediate effect to prevent job losses for lakhs of people in the handloom, powerloom and spinning sectors.”
Several countries across the world have extended packages to mitigate the COVID-19 crisis. For instance, Germany has announced a financial package of half trillion Euros for companies impacted by the crisis to boost their liquidity.