Knitwear manufacturing units in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu’s industrial life line that employes more than 6 lakh workers, are in trouble because of the intransigent attitude of the customs officials, according to office bearers of Tiruppur Exporters Association, the umbrella organisation of all entrepreneurs in the textile hub.
The knitwear units which scraped through a major crisis following the covid-19 pandemic because of the financial packages announced by the Centre is facing a hostile Customs Department which has refused to issue clearance certificates to consignments meant for the industry that has from China.
The consignments include accessories and raw materials which are urgently required by the knitwear units, according to Raja M Shanmugham, TEA President.
“The concern is that this news has given doubtfulness to the buyers on the possibility of exporting of goods as per delivery schedule. While contacting the Customs Authorities we came to know that they could proceed for clearance of stranded consignment only after getting approval from the Central Government,” Shanmugham said in representations he sent to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Industries Minister Piyush Goyal.
Shanmugham said the refusal of the Customs Officials come at a time when garment exports is facing severe competition in the global market from countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia apart from China. Foreign buyers are always keen to get quality product with competitiveness couples with delivery schedule,” said the representation by Shanmugham.
He said any delay in delivering the products would force the buyers to categorise the Indian exporters as unreliable suppliers and this would sound the death knell of the knitwear industry in the country.