Coimbatore : Citing liquidity crisis, Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) Friday requested Finance Minister, Nirmala Seetharaman to advise to clear the pending claims amount in related to Drawback, Rebate on State Levies (RoSL) and Rebate of State and Central Tax and Levies (ROSCTL), including IGST.

In a letter to the Finance Minister, TEA president, Raja M Shanmugham said knitwear garment sector has been already undergoing a liquidity crisis and at this situation, Diwali festival is approaching in next 20 days and the units have to statutorily disburse the bonus to the workers from now on-wards.

” As the issue is critical to the units, may we request the Minister to advise to clear the pending claims amount in related to Drawback, RoSL, RoSCTL including IGST stopped to the concerned exporting units listed under Risky Exporters category expediently,” he said.

Regarding Risky Exporters category, he said that duty drawback, IGST and RoSL benefits have been suspended to the knitwear garmenting units and these units are also undergoing 100 per cent inspection at port further to classification of these units under Risky Exporters category.

The concern is that these units do not know the exact reason for them being classified as Risky Exporters and moreover, during inspection, the garments taken out of the consignment are getting soiled, get unpressed condition which creates a bad reputation among buyer and affect the future orders also. We wish to note that instead of checking at ports, the concerned units can be asked to provide the documents to justify their genuineness, he said.

He also requested to clear the Technology Upgradation Fund scheme subsidy pending more than three years which was also affecting largelyto the garment units.

The release of the pending claims will help tide over the financial crisisand also to make the bonus payment without any issue, and the measure will be particularly beneficial to the MSME units, numbering 80 per cent out of total garment exporting units, Raja Shanmugham said.