Dear Readers,

The Budget proposals presented on 29 February 2008 in the Parliament by the Finance Minister, P Chidambaram, on the face of it, seem disappointing, especially when matched against growing industry expectations.

Considering the continuous appreciation of rupee, which has severely impacted textile and apparel export growth in the last one year or so, it is felt that there is no clear direction or path the government wishes to follow to support the sector. In fact, the budget document so presented does not talk about the sector, left alone a line or two.

However, a few days before the budget, the FM had announced a few concessions for the industry i.e. (a) extension to the scheme to refund service tax paid by exporters on taxable services, which are not in the nature of "input services" but could be linked to export of goods, to three more taxable services, such as (i) Services provided by the Goods Transport Agency in relation to transportation of export goods from the place of removal to the actual place of export i.e. inland container depot/port/airport; (ii) Services provided in relation to transportation of export goods in containers by rail from the place of removal to the actual place of export i.e. inland container depot/port/airport; and (iii) Courier Services provided to an exporter in relation to transportation of documents, goods or articles relating to export, to a destination outside India; and (b) extending the facility through the next financial year for delivery of export credit in Indian Rupees to exporters at lower interest rates for certain specific sectors including textiles and apparel, whereby 4 % interest subvention by banks is applicable.

All the industry associations, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry and Apparel Export Promotion Council have, in one voice, expressed disappointment and have requested the Finance Minister to address the serious issues by including a textile package in the Budget for providing relief to this rupee hit industry by way of a mechanism for return of all taxes to exporters, reduction of excise and customs duties on fibres and capital goods and declaring a moratorium of at least one year for repayment of term loans.

An extensive coverage to the Budget together with the views of various industry associations can be found in the cover story in this issue of the magazine. The issue also contains various other features including spring/summer'08 trends at top of the line retail giants, exclusive and detailed coverage to recently concluded technology and fashion fairs i.e. GTE'8 and 40th IIGF and RBI's Credit and Monetary Policy, besides the updated information under regular columns - Exim Watch, Import/Export Analysis (for complete year 2007 on India's exports to the US, Canada and Japan), Logistics, Financial and Technology/Machinery.

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Editor
Attire World - the apparel business bimonthly