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G. Gurumurthy

COIMBATORE, Jan.11

THE powerloom industry is piqued by the pruning of the powerloom export entitlement (PEE) from 15 to 10 per cent by the Textile Ministry in the quota allocation for the year 2002.

The industry representatives have taken up the issue with the Union Textile Minister, Mr Kashiram Rana, seeking restoration of the original 15 per cent level.

What the Ministry has done in the PEE allotment for 2002 is that it has delinked the 5 per cent quota from the annual 15 per cent quota level and merged it with the `ready goods' entitlement that will be allocable to all the textile exporters.

According to powerloom industry sources, the Textile Ministry had increased the PEE from 10 per cent to 15 per cent a couple of years ago by making the additional 5 per cent quota new investment related one. This was done to encourage modernisation of looms by the decentralised powerloom industry. Later, the Government had linked the distribution of the 5 per cent quota to the technology upgradation fund scheme (TUFS)-related investment in the weaving sector.

However, the sources maintained that the Government move followed poor response from powerloom quota seekers in utilising the 5 per cent NIE (new investment entitlement) earmarked in the PEE. Hence, it had chosen to prune the annual PEE from 15 per cent to 10 per cent and decided to club the pruned quota portion with the `Ready Goods' category.

For example, for the quota year of 2002, hardly two applications were received for the allotment of the 5 per cent NIE quota from powerloom exporters. And these two applicants were found ineligible for quota allocation finally.

However, the members of the decentralised powerloom industry which met the Union Textile Minister recently protested against the Ministry's move to prune the PEE and transfer it to the `Ready goods' on the pretext that it would de-motivate the small-scale powerloom weavers in export efforts. They argued that the powerloom industry got the enhancement of PEE to 15 per cent after hard bargaining and did not want to fritter it away, particularly when the pruned quota was being linked to the `Ready Goods' category that would only benefit exporters of other sectors.

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