Apparel Exporters Met Piyush Goyal to Discuss GST Returns Delay

The country’s apparel exporters reached out to Finance Minister Piyush Goyal seeking intervention to resolve their issues related to GST refunds and delay in disbursal of Rebate on State Levies (RoSL) dues.

Textile and apparel exports have witnessed a downslide in the last eight months.

In a statement, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) said that in the two-hour long meeting, the finance minister noted the concerns of the apparel industry with regards to the huge blockages in GST refunds and the slow disbursements in RoSL.

The finance minister has instructed his team to urgently identify central and state embedded taxes and work out a reimbursement mechanism. Also, Ministry will expedite GST and RoSL refunds in a time-bound manner, AEPC said.

AEPC said Goyal assured all possible support from his ministry to enable growth in exports and job creation by the employment-intensive apparel, made-ups and textile industries.

AEPC pointed that due to blockages of working capital arising because of the blocked GST refunds and slow disbursements in RoSL - the industry has not been able to book orders in the peak season and hence is losing out to its competitors in a big way.

Since over 90 percent of apparel manufacturers are in the MSME sector with limited financial capability, this has created crippling pressure, said HKL Magu, Chairman, AEPC.

AEPC claimed that the apparel industry has witnessed a reduction in the drawback and RoSL benefits by over 5 percent of (Freight on Board) FoB since the pre-GST period.

This, coupled with the disadvantage of around 10 percent faced by the industry vis-a-vis its competitors in the major markets like EU, due to lack of preferential access, had led to India losing out to Bangladesh and Vietnam in a big way, it said.