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Heimtextil India and Ambiente India—two of the world’s finest home fashion business exhibitions—recently held their fifth edition in the national capital. The two events were held between 27-29 June at Delhi’s Pragati Maidan. The Minister of State for Textiles, Ajay Tamta, inaugurated the proceedings, along with Raj Manek, Executive Director of Messe Frankfurt Asia Holding Ltd. among other dignitaries.
Speaking at the inauguration, Tamta said, “I’m glad to be present here at the inauguration of the 5th edition of Heimtextil and Ambiente India trade fairs. It’s an honour for Indian handlooms and textiles to be present here and I’d like to congratulate Messe Frankfurt for this initiative. India has been a part of this global event since the past editions and I also got a chance to attend it in Germany. It has been creating job opportunities for small-scale handloom and textile artistes.”
He further added: “This yearly event also gives a push to the Indian economy—both for handlooms and handicrafts. I’ve been told that many National Award winners and veterans have taken part in this event and it is great to see the industry coming together for this show.”
He also addressed the gathering, which included the industry’s new and leading brands presenting the latest collections for the Indian market.
The three-day fair was organised by Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India. They brought more than 150 top manufacturers and suppliers of the home textiles and interior décor industry from across India, as well as from China, Indonesia, Switzerland and Thailand under one roof.
The exhibition also provided a platform to several startups, as well as reputed companies like D’décor, Reliance, Aditya Birla, Hira Hastkala, and Solidbench among many others.
Highlighting the events designed exclusively for the business fraternity, Raj Manek said, “Every edition of the co-located show has successfully managed to curate exclusive programmes for the benefit of its buyers and exhibitors. Along with a host of new displays, zones and insightful sessions, this edition has a specially designed pavilion by ‘Cohands’ that will display India’s legacy in art and design by highly acclaimed National Awardees.”
On the first day, Heimtextil India and Ambiente India 2018 hosted the Interior Lifestyle Awards, to honour creative masters from the interior décor and home textile sectors, who will now represent India on a global platform at the next edition of Ambiente and Heimtextil in Frankfurt.
With over 500 entries from around the nation, it was a tough task for the jury to choose the winners. Ace designers Leena Singh, Alex Davis and Lipika Sud were given the responsibility to pick the winners for the two designated spots. But this time there were three winners—Jaya Kanwar for home textile; and Hitesh Sharma and Pravin Singh Solanki for home décor.
Hitesh Sharma, founder of Solidbench, spoke to Guardian 20 about his experience. He said, “Me and my partner, Anant Khirbat, never expected that we will get this opportunity to present our brand globally on such a big platform.”
He informed us that he had received a mail from the organisers saying that they can showcase their collection at the exhibition. Among 500 entries from across the world, 11 applicants were given the opportunity to showcase their collection at the Delhi exhibition, in home décor and home textile categories.
Sharma added, “We are delighted that our brand got selected to showcase globally at Frankfurt next year.”
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Relief to traders in e-way bill system; textiles to be exempt for intra-State transport
Maharashtra has registered 28% increase in receipts under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime in financial year 2017-18, compared to 2016-17, State Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said on Sunday.
Total tax receipts for 2016-17 were ?90,525.19 crore, which rose to ?11,5940.23 crore in 2017-18 after the implementation of the GST. “The performance of Maharashtra is not only encouraging in terms of numbers, but more money in the State treasury would also mean the government will be able to spend on developmental and infrastructure works,” said Mr Mungantiwar, while addressing a gathering of State and Central government officers deputed to work on GST.
According to a presentation made during the event, the first quarter of 2018 has shown an increase of 39.5% in GST collected, compared to last year. In April-June 2017, total tax collection in the State was ?25,742.57 crore, which increased to ?35,915 crore in April-June 2018. There are 14,45,574 GST account holders in the State, of which 4.9 lakh are registered with the Central authority and 9.55 lakh with the State sales department.
Maharashtra also tops the list in implementation of the e-way bill system, which is an electronically generated document for the movement of goods worth over ?50,000 from one place (State) to another. Mr. Mungantiwar announced that the minimum will now be increased to ?1 lakh. He also said textiles will be excluded from the e-way bill system within the State.
The State government also claims to have approved 77.68% applications for GST returns, adding the numbers are encouraging for traders as well. As per government data, the department received a total of 13,235 applications for GST returns amounting to ?2,636 crore. Of these, 10,281 applications seeking refunds worth ?2,258 crore have been sanctioned.
Mr. Mungantiwar said, “We received complaints on several issues while implementing GST over the last year. In a bid to bring more transparency, the government ensured it talked with all stakeholders and solved the problems.”
The garment exporters in Tirupur are having a contented feeling as Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami exclusively took up the major grievances in the cluster with the Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu.
This was following the recent communication of the exporters here with the State Government highlighting the issues that hindered the growth of the cluster during the just ended 2017-18 fiscal year. The Chief Minister had requested the Union Minister to take up the request for enhanced interest subvention from 3 % to 5 % for the apparel sector. This apart, the exporters’ plea for increasing the duty drawback to remain cost competitive in the global markets was also highlighted.
The exporters in Tirupur cluster were also struggling to get a level playing field in European and American apparel markets due to the preferential trade tariff advantages enjoyed by Bangladesh and few other direct competitor countries.
For this, the Chief Minister had suggested for steps to expedite signing of free trade agreements with European Union, United States of America and United Kingdom.
As the Goods and Services Tax (GST) roll-out completed one year today, handloom workers from Gorakhpur on Sunday shared problems they have been facing since the implementation of the indirect tax.
Calling the GST a ‘failure’, the workers said that the situation had worsened to such an extent that many people in the handloom industry lost their jobs and several were forced to sell their looms and open tea shops and other small distances.
“I was working in handloom, after GST our machines sold. We became jobless. I did not have any option, had to run a family, I now run a poultry shop,” Nabi Ahmed, a handloom worker said.
They also claimed that contrary to what the Central Government had ensured, their businesses have hit an all-time low post the implementation of GST and it has become increasingly difficult to sell their products.
Some even claimed that if the Central Government does not take immediate steps to resolve the situation, they would take it to the streets.
Another handloom worker, Imtiaz Ahmed said, “I used to run a handloom factory, I used to have my own machines. But after the implementation of GST, we faced a huge problem, I did not understand what was going on, after three months I sold my machines and the opened a tea shop. GST has a caused huge problem.”
In a major initiative to ease the tax system of the country, the Centre launched the GST on July 1 last year to bring in a regulated tax system in the country.
Launched on the midnight on June 30 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the then President Pranab Mukherjee, the taxation scheme aimed at bringing all taxes into a single window along the lines of the ‘One Nation – One Tax – One Market’ goal.
Although Donald Trump accuses China of unfair trading practices, China is making efforts to demonstrate that it plays by WTO rules, slashing tariffs by nearly eight percent, effective Sunday.
China will cut tariffs on a range of imported consumer goods on Sunday in a bid to show it’s taking steps to increase imports.
It says the cuts on goods from food to medicine are further evidence that its domestic market is opening up.
The reductions come as the US continues to threaten tariff increases on billions of dollars worth of Chinese exports.
Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride reports from Beijing
South Korea’s exports surpassed 50 billion dollars for the fourth consecutive month, but declined slightly in June from a year earlier. According to tentative data by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Sunday, the country’s outbound shipments reached 51-point-23 billion U.S. dollars last month, slipping point-09 percent from a year ago.
The ministry said it is the first time exports topped 50 billion dollars for four straight months. Exports shrank one-point-five percent in April and rebounded to a growth of 13-point-five percent. The ministry attributed last month’s drop to a high base effect and shorter working days. Imports in June surged ten-point-seven percent on-year to 44-point-91 billion dollars. The trade surplus came to six-point-32 billion dollars, marking 77 straight months in which the country’s exports have exceeded imports.
The body suggested that the HSN Code should be made applicable only on the manufacturers and not traders.
As the goods and services tax (GST) approaches one year of implementation, traders have requested the finance ministry to review issues like filing of multi-returns, refunds from the department, awareness about the unified tax regime and its compliances.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), in a letter written to the ministry today, has suggested that instead of monthly returns, quarterly returns should be prescribed on Form 3B to make return filing simpler.
Asking for the refunds to be automatically credited to traders’ bank accounts, it has called for one registration number for traders to be allowed across India, instead of taking registrations in every state for doing business.
Further, the body suggested that the HSN Code should be made applicable only on the manufacturers and not traders.
It has also appealed for assistance to traders to equip them with computers, in order to encourage e-compliance.
“A comprehensive incentive scheme should be given to traders who adopt digital payments for complying tax obligations and use digital payment in their day to day business by allowing rebate in tax,” it further said.
Also, it is necessary that pending amendments in GST Act should be done as early as possible, the letter read.
Other suggestions include no input credit should be denied on pretext of invoice matchmaking, traders should be allowed to edit the returns, the classifications of goods should be made more easy, inter-state supplies should be allowed in composition scheme and a GST Lokpal should be constituted for fair and transparent redressal of grievances.
CAIT has also said that reverse charge mechanism should be deferred till March next year.
It has also urged the ministry to constitute a joint committee of traders and senior officials at district level to take GST down the line.
The GST, which was implemented on July 1, 2017, replaced over a dozen indirect taxes levied by the Centre and state governments.
Sri Lanka’s trade deficit widened in April 2018 from a year ago as export earnings growth was flat while imports rose sharply driven by a big rise in imports of cars, the central bank said.
“However, tourist earnings and workers’ remittances continued to record a healthy growth during the month,” a statement said.
“The deficit in the trade account expanded in April 2018 reversing the deceleration observed in the previous month,” it said. “This expansion was largely driven by the increase in expenditure on imports while earnings from exports remained stagnant.”
In April 2018, merchandise export earnings remained unchanged at 795 million US dollars when compared with April 2017 while expenditure on imports increased almost 12 percent to 1,794million US dollars.
“In terms of the current account, the trade deficit expanded in April 2018 as import expenditure increased at a higher pace while export earnings remained subdued,” the central bank said.
Textiles and garments exports fell 3.4 percent to 338.6 million dollars, declining for the first time since June 2017, while tea exports were almost flat at 110 million dollars.
Vehicle imports rose 180 percent to 158 million dollars and refined petroleum products by 26 percent to 257 million dollars. “Import expenditure on personal vehicles, categorised under consumer goods, contributed mainly to the overall growth in imports due to the substantial increase in imports of small engine capacity vehicles, hybrids and electric vehicles,” the statement said.
Expenditure on textiles and textile articles reduced marginally driven by lower fabric imports in April 2018.
“Machinery and equipment mainly contributed to the growth in import expenditure of investment goods while expenditure on the import of transport equipment also increased driven by commercial vehicles such as buses and tractors.”
Vietnam’s total import and export turnover in the first six months of 2018 is estimated to hit US$225.29 billion, showing a year-on-year rise of 13 %, according to the General Department of Customs.Of the figure, the export value is likely to reach US$113.93 billion since the beginning of this year, up 16% against the same period last year, while import value is calculated at US$111.36 billion, a rise of 10.2 %.
As a result, Vietnam will run a trade surplus of US$2.57 billion in the first half of the year.
In January-June, the country hopes to gross US$22.5 billion from exporting mobile phones and spare parts (up 15.4%) as well as US$13.42 billion from garment-textile (up 13.8%), nearly US$13.46 billion from computers, electronic products and components (up 15.7%), and US$3.96 billion from aquatic products (up 11%).
Also in the reviewed period, imports of computers, electronic products and spare parts are estimated at US$19.7 billion (up 14.3%), machinery, equipment and components US$16.15 billion (down 7.3%), mobile phones and spare parts US$5.97 billion (down 4.4%), and fabric US$6.43 billion (up 17.1%).
Vietnam’s trade surplus hit a record high of US$2.92 billion in 2017, according the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
The country had 29 groups of items whose export revenue exceeded US$1 billion, 20 groups with export turnover of above US$2 billon and eight groups with export value of more than US$6 billion.
2017 was considered a good year for Vietnam with its exports crossing the US$200 billion mark for the first time and ending at US$214.02 billion, a year-on-year increase of 21.2 % and well above the Government’s target.
Move will help ECGC provide cost-effective credit insurance to exporters: Centre
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday approved a capital infusion of ?2,000 crore into the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) to be infused over the three financial years 2017-20.
The break-up of the infusion would be ?50 crore in 2017-18, ?1,450 crore in 2018-19, and ?500 crore in 2019-20.
MSME exports
“The infusion would enhance insurance coverage to MSME exports and strengthen India’s exports to emerging and challenging markets like Africa, CIS and Latin American countries,” the government said in a release. “With enhanced capital, ECGC’s underwriting capacity and risk to capital ratio will improve considerably. With a stronger underwriting capacity, ECGC will be in a better position to support Indian exporters to tap new and unexplored markets.”
The increased capital infusion would also help ECGC to diversify its product portfolio and provide cost-effective credit insurance to exporters, the government said.
“Covers from ECGC will help in improving competitive position of India exporters in international markets,” the government said. “More than 85% of customers benefited by ECGC’s covers are MSMEs. ECGC covers exports to around 200 countries in the world.”
Separately, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs also approved the contribution of grant-in-aid of ?1,040 crore to the National Export Insurance Account Trust (NEIA). “The corpus is to be utilised during three years from 2017-18 to 2019-20,” the government said.
“An amount of ?440 crore has already been received for the year 2017-18. ?300 crore each will be given to NEIA for the years 2018-19 and 2019-20. The corpus would strengthen NEIA to support project exports from the country that are of strategic and national importance,” the Centre added.
