As per the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) the government has notified Panipat as Town of Export Excellence for carpets, other textile floor coverings and bed linen. Panipat is a major cluster for carpet manufacturers in Haryana with about 200 units in the micro, small and medium enterprises. Haryana is one of the four major carpet producing belts.
The Panipat offers direct employment to over 10,000 people. Besides exports, it supplies carpets worth Rs 1,000 crore in the domestic market. Haryana alone exports carpets worth over Rs 3,000 crore. The GST Council, after demands from the Panipat Carpet industry, had slashed GST rate from 12 per cent to 5 per cent to make Indian carpets competitive.
Panipat’s handmade carpet industry gave a sigh of relief after the rate cut as it was unable to face competition from Turkish imports.
