Dr. Vinita Kumar meets Chennai Exporters
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During her visit to Chennai to assess the impact of appreciating rupee on exports, Economic Advisor to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Dr. Vinita Kumar interacted with about 35 exporters in a meeting organised by the Southern Region Office of FIEO on 7th September. During the meeting, the Executive Director of Council for Leather Exports, Mr. K. Elangovan informed that due to steep appreciation of rupee, the entire leather exporters were badly hit as most of them invoiced their receivables in dollar even in case of supplies to major brands in Europe. Speaking further, he invited the attention of Dr. Kumar towards comparative cost disadvantages suffered by India with China saying that the leather units in India were predominantly under small and medium scale unlike Chinese units operating on large scale. Meanwhile, he observed that the Indian leather |
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Dr Vinita Kumar, Economic Advisor, Department of Commerce addressing the participants. On her left is Mr. K. Elangovan, IAS, Executive Director, Council for Leather Exports. |
exporters should engage themselves in the process of brand building on the lines of Brazil.
Listing out the steps to be taken by the Government, Mr. Elangovan said that the working-hour norms for women in footwear industry should be eased and more quality inspection and certification labs should be set up in the country.
Vice President of Tamil Nadu Leather Tanners Exporters & Importers Association, Mr. P M R Shamshudeen observed that there was a vast scope for India to import hides for tanning and then export them with some value addition.
Infrastructural bottlenecks, especially congestion at ports and poor conditions of roads connecting ports were highlighted by the participants as major irritants to growth. Many exporters also informed that due to frequent failure of EDI system at customs, they were facing delay in processing of their documents leading to unnecessary delay in shipments.
Dr. Vinita Kumar visited the Chennai based M/s. India Shoes Exports Pvt. Ltd. and had a discussion with Mr. M. Rafeeque Ahmed, Chairman of the company. Mr. Ahmed, who is also one the former Presidents of FIEO, informed her that most overseas buyers insisted Indian exporters to invoice in dollar and thus more than 75% of Indian exports were being transacted in dollar terms. The remaining 25% of invoices made in Euro or other currencies, he said, were also affected as the final calculations in international trade were based on dollar only.
Mr. Ahmad further said that Indian leather exporters were facing tough competition from China and Vietnam and in order to retain their buyers they were pricing their products at a loss of almost eight percent.
Dr. Kumar also visited Hyundai Motor India Ltd. and discussed issues related to exports of automobiles from India. The Executive Director of Hyundai observed that if the Ennore Port was made operational, then his company would be able to transport its consignments through national highways during day time also. Currently we are allowed to carry our shipments to Chennai Port only during nights, he said.
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A view of the participants. |
