Gandhinagar: Suvidh Shah, Assistant Director General of Foreign Trade ADGFT – Directorate General of Foreign Trade speaking here on Friday said the role model for DGFT in Gujarat is Morbi and not Surat because while Surat registers Rs. 7,000 crore export of textile and diamond combined, Morbi registers Rs. 10,000 crore export of tiles only.

Speaking at The Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Shah said, ‘Morbi is witnessing growth, though it is a small district. India’s first wooden park is also going to start in Morbi only. Morbi is interestingly witnessing more sell of wooden products than Alang.’

He further said, ‘Surat’s large dependence is only on textile and diamond industries. Due to dumping of fabrics from China, Vietnam, Bangladesh etc countries, fabrics and textile sector has been impacted.’

Shah said, ‘the slowdown situation at present is similar to 1997. The reasons such as reduced demand, reduced export, stable prices of commodities, demonetization and GST are responsible for this. Dollar price is in range of Rs. 70-72. People have reduced investment. Diamond and Textile were not covered by tax earlier but due to GST the sectors are now paying tax. On the other hand, Indians living abroad are sending lesser money. There’s slowdown in oil trade in Gulf, and therefore foreign currency arrival here is not as much. Surat needs to search for new market and new product.;

Shah said, ‘diamond and textile industries in Surat were largely into informal trade, but due to 7.6% duty on polished diamond, round tripping has ended. Low rate bank loans were taken based on round tripping figures earlier and loan money was invested in land and gold during demonetization. Those who invested in land are stuck. Even in textile, the businessmen would take wrong benefit of duty drawback and other schemes. Post GST, white channel trade has witnessed 200% growth. Those who were into unethical trade practice are shouting about slow down. As parallel black economy has ceased functioning in Surat, one can’t expect boom. Surat needs to search for new market, new product.’

Shah said, ‘the Government of India has started JEM online portal to encourage MSME industries. While Amazon and Flipkart turnover is Rs. 10,000 crore, JEM turnover is Rs. 30,000 crore. Any small manufacturer can sell product to government directly through JEM. However very few people in Surat are aware about this portal. JEM started before Amazon and Flipkart and it is very active platform. The website will cross Rs. 1 lakh crore export mark in next two years.’

DeshGujarat