Cheap credit, tax exemption for garment exporters advocated

September 1st, 2009 PANAJI - Iron ore exporters in Goa say Australia's Yandi mines have emerged as a tough competition. According to Goa Mineral Ore Exporters Association (GMOEA) executive director S.

August 31st, 2009 NEW YORK - India's exports to the US can increase by $1.5-billion if it made an effort to bail out the ailing textiles sector, according to Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran, now on an official visit to the US. "My visit will help exporters grab a large chunk of the market, which is expected to rebound by 2010 and 2011, Maran said Sunday while inaugurating the India Pavilion at "Sourcing Magic" fair in Las Vegas.

August 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Government will unveil its foreign trade policy today for the next five years starting from FY10. It is expected to eliminate or refund taxes and offer cheaper bank credit to recession-battered exporters, besides encouraging them to look beyond the US and European markets.

July 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran inaugurated the 43rd edition of the India International Garment Fair (IIGF) and the first exclusive silk exhibition 'Silk Paradise' here today. More than 200 garment manufacturers and exporters from Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad, Jaipur, Pushkar, Tirupur, Mumbai and Kolkata are participating in the fair.

July 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The 43rd India International Garment Fair that began here Wednesday will fetch manufacturers almost the same amount of business as the previous one. "The forecast isn't that bad, but I am not very optimistic either.

July 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Monday proposed to increase the income tax exemption limit for senior citizens by Rs.15,000, for women and others by Rs.10,000 each, while keeping the corporate tax rate unchanged. The exemption limit will now be Rs.240,000 for senior citizens, Rs.190,000 for women and Rs.160,000 for others.

June 29th, 2009 DHAKA - Agitating workers Monday set fire to a garment factory located on the outskirts of the capital, where violence over the past two days has left two workers dead and 200 injured. Police fired rubber bullets to break up the demonstrators who took to the streets in Ashulia for the third day in succession.

June 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Representatives of the ailing export sector sought a slew of sops including a Rs.5,000-crore market development fund when they met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and top officials Tuesday as part of pre-budget consultations. The exporters' wish-list, apart from the bailout package in the form of a market development fund, also includes elimination of the fringe benefit tax, income tax exemption, reduction of interest rates, and speedier insurance and service tax refunds.

May 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Facing its worst crisis in over a decade, India's ailing export sector wants the new government to gift it a three-year income tax holiday, with experts pushing for concrete steps to protect some 20 million direct jobs in the industry. An appreciating rupee, falling global demand, the high cost of credit and protectionism by some economies like the US are the reasons why India's external trade industry is seeking such sops, after missing the export target for the previous fiscal.

April 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Garment exports fell 14 percent short of the $11.62-billion (Rs.581-crore) target for 2008-09 but was 4.6 percent more than that earned last year, the exporters' umbrella organisation said Wednesday. Provisional figures released by the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) showed $10.13 billion (Rs.56,000 crore) worth of garments were exported last fiscal, as against Rs.48,400 crore ($9.68 billion) in 2007-08.

April 10th, 2009 BANGALORE - People associated with textile industry received tips to fight recession from a Japanese company at a seminar held in Bangalore. The industrial sewing giant from Japan, Juki, has set up its Indian head quarter in Bangalore.

February 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A leading Indian garment exporters' lobby Thursday demanded sops like duty cuts and interest free loans to help them tide over a crisis that has seen thousands of layoffs. 'We really don't know what step we would take further without any special package for our industry,' said Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) chairman Rahul Vaid.

January 19th, 2009 GURGAON - India's garment exporters, grappling with falling demand and increasing competition from countries such as Bangladesh who offer cheaper alternatives, Tuesday said the government should exempt it from the purview of fringe benefit tax. 'We are expecting a stimulus package from the government, and we hope that the garment export sector will be exempted from the fringe benefit bracket as is applicable to IT sector,' Rakesh Vaid, chairman of the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), told IANS.

January 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Aggressive pricing by Chinese exporters, coupled with lack of credit flow and cancellation of orders, is crippling India's exports, which may go down further in the first half of 2009, said an industry lobby survey, released here Sunday. According to the report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), Indian exporters are facing 'meet the China price' challenge from across the market.

December 25th, 2008 NEW DELHI - The government Friday announced allocation of Rs.3.5 billion (Rs.350 crore) to the state-run Export Credit Guarantee Corp of India Ltd (ECGC) for providing higher risk cover to micro, small and medium exporters (MSME). The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave its approval for allocation of the amount that will increase the risk cover to the MSMEs from 85 percent to 95 percent.