Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 15: The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry held an interaction with stakeholders belonging to the handicrafts sector and discussed their issues in detail.
The meeting was presided over the Nasir Hamid Khan, senior vice president. Parvaiz Bhat, Chairman Handicrafts Sub-Committee and Rauf Ahmad Punjabi, chairman Trade Fairs Sub-Committee also participated in the session.
Parvez Bhat informed the members that the KCC&I was fully conscious about the problems being faced by this important sector but the situation prevailing since the last one year had frustrated the revival efforts. Rauf Punjabi informed the members that the KCC&I had been facilitating the participation of it’s members in prestigious fairs and exhibitions and there were many in the pipeline when the disruptions occurred. He said the COVID situation had also caused major losses to the traditional markets and experts had predicted a period of deep recession.
Bhat stated that post August 2019, the handicraft sector had been badly hit due to the internet ban and other restrictions which prevented exporters from shipping of domestic and foreign consignments. In this situation, the KCC&I was doing everything possible to see that the most vulnerable sections of our artisans and weavers were benefited from various enabling schemes. He said members of the Kashmiri handicrafts sector were also unable to avail benefits due to the previous stressed conditions. He informed the members that the KCC&I had taken up the issue with concerned authorities for bringing the artisans, weavers and other self-help groups under the ambit of the various packages.
Members raised the losses being incurred by exporters of woollen shawls due to the replacement of the MEIS by ROSCTL from March, 2019. The ROSCTL suffered from discriminatory rates which benefited exporters of low value shawls whereas exporters of high value Pashmina and embroidered shawls were put to a loss due to the disparity in the schedule. This had resulted in a sharp decline in the export of Kashmiri shawls and other allied products.
Parvez said the matter had already been taken up with the Director General of Foreign Trade and shall also be taken up with the Ministry of Textiles for change in the rates of ROSCTL.
Rauf Punjabi said that the artisans who were provided loans by the J&K Bank on concessional interest rates were caught in a debt trap because of the delayed reimbursement of it’s share of interest by the Government. This caused spiralling of the bank loans which added to the burden of the artisans.
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