TUTICORIN: The National Small Match Manufacturers Association has urged the Centre to increase the export incentives to enable the manufacturers to remain competitive in the foreign niche markets.
In a memorandum to the Commissioner of Central Excise, Tirunelveli, association secretary V.S. Sethurathinam said steps should be taken immediately to increase the Duty Entitlement Pass Book rates to 20 per cent, since the pre sent five per cent was low. Owing to the fall in the price of dollar, the selling rates witnessed a corresponding decline.
Rupee appreciation
At present, 4,000 cottage industries and 200 mechanised units in Tamil Nadu alone produced 15.5 crore match bundles (600 match boxes in a bundle) at a sale value of Rs. 280 crore annually.
Of these, 10 per cent was exported to the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Though there was a great demand for regular and wax matches overseas, the manufacturers here were unable to accept the orders after the rupee gained against the dollar. “Once the rupee became stronger, we were forced to sell our products without any profit just to keep the customer base intact.”
In this scenario, export incentives, similar to the ones offered to textiles, would help the manufactures obtain better unit value realisation for their products in the foreign markets.
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