Apparel manufacturers across the nation are strongly voicing their concerns that they are not in a position to pay wages and salaries for the month of April. Time and again, various export promotion councils (EPCs) and trade bodies have requested State and Union Government but nothing concrete has come forward so far.
The Team Apparel Resources spoke to several apparel manufacturers across the country and all were of the view that they are not in a position to pay April wages. Even top exporters of the country shared that they can’t even pay wages, no matter whatever the Government advisories are.
Now the issue is becoming more critical and industry has started asking for the salary of May month also. Dr A Sakthivel, Chairman, AEPC is of the view, “Indian apparel export industry is nearing collapse as we estimate a loss of export of over US $ 4 billion. Coupled with this, the lockdown in our country has also resulted in complete stoppage of work. So, we are not in a position to pay wages for April and May despite our best intention, as there is absolutely no production and no revenue stream.”
He, however, suggested to the Government that the latter can pay wages from the funds available in the Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana (ABVKY) scheme, which has, as understood, huge reserves of about Rs. 91,000 crores, as contributed by employees and employers.
Apparel manufacturing industry, being highly labour-intensive, has wage bill of about 30 per cent of the product cost, whereas in other sectors it ranges around 5 per cent. The apparel sector works on very low margins of 4-5 per cent only.
Virender Uppal, Chairman, Richa Global Exports also told AR, “It is very dicey situation. We have told the Government that exporters don’t have salary and wages of April month; Government must give something to us. Many other countries have supported their industries in a good way specially to pay wages and salary.”
