The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) has recently inaugurated office in the premises of Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries (GCCI) in Ahmedabad in the State of Gujarat. The initiative by the council will boost the exports of apparel from the state. Further, an international exhibition will also be hosted by GCCI in March 2018. “Petroleum and other products have been kept out of GST and so there is an additional tax incidence of about 12 per cent. India’s competitors have FTA with buyers, their currency has depreciated so their exports are rising,” said Ashok Rajani, President of AEPC in Ahmedabad while inaugurating the office of AEPC.

A decline was observed in the apparel exports from India since three years. Indian apparel exporters are losing competitiveness by around 9 per cent in export markets after the rollout of goods and services tax (GST), according to AEPC data. There was a decline of 39 per cent in apparel exports for October. And, for the July-October period, there has been a drastic fall of 5.94 per cent in overall exports of apparels. The apparel export industry has been severely handicapped by the sharp reductions in the effective drawback and RoSL rates, said the council.

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