Apparel exporters have appealed to the government to review the duty drawback rates announced recently for ready-made garments.

Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) chairman (acting) A. Sakthivel said the new rates announced by the government were 2.20-2.52 percentage points short of what the council had sought.

Reduced policy support

For instance, the rates announced for cotton ready-made garments are 1.8% to 2.2% whereas the council had sought 4.32%. Since the introduction of GST, the policy support received for apparel exports had reduced significantly. “The duty drawback rates for apparel industry has decreased for most of the important product categories of garments like cotton garments, MMF garments, blend garments, etc. This has come as a serious setback for the industry which is already losing global market share due to reduced competitiveness, post GST,” a release quoted him as saying.

Garment exports last financial year were worth $16.9 billion and this year, so far, there was negative growth. The industry had already sought an increase in rebate of state levies (ROSL). The government should increase the ROSL and enhance the duty drawback rates for garments, he said.