SIMA's appeal to Centre for Rs appreciation
The Southern India Mills Association (SIMA) today appealed to the Centre to immediately control the rupee appreciation against the US dollar to sustain the export growth of the Indian textile and clothing industry and have a level-playing field in the global market.The sudden appreciation of the rupee in the recent past has affected the textiles and clothing export adversely. "The strengthening of the rupee is particularly detrimental to low import intensive and price sensitive industries like textiles," SIMA chairman S V Arumugam said in a statement here.The Indian rupee has been appreciating for quite some time and climbed to a nine-year high of 41.92 US dollars on April 16, 2007, an appreciation of over six per cent from April 2006, he pointed out.The textile business is a low profit one with profits ranging between three to five per cent, unlike many other businesses.Any further appreciation in the value of the rupee would seriously blunt the competitiveness of the industry resulting in decline in exports of textiles and garments, he said.Though the Chinese yuan has appreciated by 7.24 per cent during the period, it has other built-in advantages, by which its exports of textiles and garments have been rising significantly, he said.The Pakistan rupee has depreciated by 1.33 per cent and the Indonesian rupee by 0.36. The appreciation of Bangladeshi taka, on the other hand, has been only 1.95 per cent during the period, he pointed out.
