Hon’ble Minister of MSME and Road Transport and Highways Shri Nitin Jairam Gadkari said he will request Hon’ble Prime Minister and Hon’ble Minister of Commerce
to allow the export of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to help the industry while creating jobs in the country.“We are all with you regarding the export of PPE kits.
I am constantly following this. I will talk with Piyush Goyal ji and the Prime Minister for the purpose as this will create more employment while at the same time
it is an opportunity for our manufacturers,” Shri Gadkari said at a webinar on ‘Manufacture and Exports of Textile Based PPE’.
“Today, we have surplus production and we are in a position to export more of these quality materials. I will write to the Commerce Ministry and the Prime Minister for giving permission to export PPE kits,
masks and sanitizer,” he said addressing the exporters at the virtual workshop, jointly organized by Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) and Process and Product Development Centre (PPDC) of Ministry of MSME.
The Hon’ble Minister congratulated AEPC for its good work and the quality of exports, which he said may be further improved.
He said that AEPC led the Apparel Industry in taking the challenge head on during the ongoing pandemic.
While assuring complete government support, he urged the industry to double its exports by becoming more competitive in terms of quality and cost.
Further, Shri Gadkari informed that the government is planning a social micro finance institution that will finance up to Rs 10 lakh to an individual.
“I am confident that this will help create two crore jobs. This is the time to help the poor; socially, economically and educationally backward; living in rural and tribal areas; and 115 aspirational districts.”
DK Singh, Additional Secretary and Development Commissioner, Ministry of MSME, said that the industry needs more labs, developed either by the government or the private sector,
and more skilled manpower who can help build a strong certification system in the country so that Indian products comply with high international standards.
AEPC Chairman Dr A Sakthivel thanked Hon’ble Minister Shri Gadkari for accepting the Council’s long term request of raising the investment limit of MSMEs to Rs 50 crore and removing the turnover limit for exporters,
apart from rolling out timely measures like collateral free automatic loan worth Rs 3 lakh crore to protect the MSMEs.
“I request the Hon’ble Minister to help in the production of MMF fabric of international standard by allotting Rs 25 crore to the Council for R&D. It will help double our garment exports in three years,
” Dr Sakthivel said and requested an additional Rs 10 crore for creating a virtual marketing platform saying the future is all about virtual marketing.
The Chairman further took the opportunity to remind the Hon’ble Minister about the request to increase the outstanding loan limit to Rs 100 crore and doing away with the turnover limit in the ECLGS scheme.