Coimbatore : Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) Tuesday appealed to Prime Minister, Narendra Modi to mandate the banks to provide a one year moratorium from April one 2020 to March 31 2021 for repayment of principal and interest amount to enable the Indian textiles and clothing industry to tide over the crisis due to Corona virus.

The country has never witnessed such a crisis situation before and therefore, the industry required a helping hand from the Government through this measure. which if extended, will go a long way to help ity to tide over the crisis and ensure the survival, SIMA Chairman Ashwin Chandran said in a representation.

COVID-19 is affecting every sphere of life including manufacturing activities, businesses across the globe and India is also not spared from the panic situation and textile industry predominantly employs migrant workers from different States and also a large population comes for work from far off places using public transport.

Under the current scenario, especially the constant preventing measures being taken and awareness created by the Government to fight against the pandemic, majority of the workers are not reporting for work and the migrant workers are also returning to their native places, Ashwin said.

This situation is likely to intensify and result in mass stoppage of production in the industry. With the expected steep reduction in demand due to sudden stoppage of exports/ imports and also domestic sales due to the closure of malls and retail showrooms, the industry is likely to face unprecedented and severe losses and needs immediate financial relief to mitigate the crisis, he said.

Therefore, the textile industry, being labour ,and capital intensive, needs immediate help to tide over the worst ever crisis being faced by the industry, Ashwin said.