CMAI has urged the government to consider extending measures, which were given to the MSMEs in manufacturing sector, to garment retailers and traders as well. They have said that enhancing of the upper limits of the sector, the merging of the manufacturing and service sectors, and the addition of a turnover based criteria, will all go a long way in enabling many more enterprises, especially here, to take advantage of the various schemes under the MSME umbrella.

The additional loans backed by the government guarantee and requiring no collateral or guarantee of the MSMEs will enable many of its members to get the much-needed working capital assistance that the industry needs to kick start operations after the lock-down ends. However, it is important that the banks respond to these measures and implement the loan scheme within 4-5 weeks to allow quick start to operations to help the economic growth in the country.

CMAI also sought government support for small manufacturers by providing direct grants for payment of wages till September. Small manufacturers will not be able to sustain the losses from lockdown and subsequent slowdown in demand. Absence of such grant could lead to up to 30 per cent of the units closing down permanently leading to 10 million job losses in the textile and apparel value chain.

Getting adequate manpower to ramp up production to meet the demand is one of the major challenges the textile industry is facing, said Sivaramakrishnan Ganapathi, Managing Director of India’s largest apparel exporter Gokaldas. To address the labor issue, the Apparel Export Promotion Council chairman A Sakthivel said the government should consider allowing 12 hours shift instead of 8 with normal wages.