Indian Textiles Minister K. Sambasiva Rao has urged apparel manufacturers in the country to increase their export target to US$ 20 billion for the current financial year 2013-14. The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) has raised apparel export target for the current fiscal year to US$ 17.5 billion. After inaugurating the India International Garment Fair, the Minister assured full support to the industry and urged apparel exporters to aim for not US$ 17.5 billion, but US$ 20 billion in exports this fiscal. The Minister said China is currently transforming from labour-intensive to capital-intensive sectors, and this throws ample opportunities for the Indian clothing sector. In 2012-13, India's garment exports dipped by around 5 percent year-on-year to US$ 12.9 billion, mainly owing to reduced demand in the US and the EU, which together account for more than 60 percent of India's total garment exports.
To increase garment exports, the exporters want enlargement of the garment export basket by manufacturing garments (both knitted and woven) from fabrics which are not widely available in India. For this, they are seeking issuance of duty credit scrip (offsetting custom duties) on import of specialty fabrics at the rate of 5% for the export performance in the year 2012-13 and in the entire 12th five year plan period. Last week, a meeting of the High Level Committee on Manufacturing (HLCM) led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took a decision to frame a new competitiveness strategy for the textiles sector. The core of the strategy is to facilitate the rapid scaling of competitiveness of the garment segment of the textile sector in the country through a comprehensive package of measures.
