The Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) has congratulated the new textile minister, Smriti Irani on her assuming the office and sought speedy notification of the guidelines and procedures for implementation of the Rs 6000 crore special package announced by the centre for the garment sector to boost exports.

Seeking her intervention to help avail the promised benefits “at the earliest”, TEA president A Sakthivel said it would help them achieve the envisaged additional export target of 30 billion US dollar in next three years besides generating one crore new jobs in the country.

Sakthivel underlined the need of having a separate Rs. 1000 crore fund for market promotional activities, mainly for participation in international fairs conducted in the country and abroad.

At present, the commerce ministry is providing only rupees six crore for the market promotion activities through schemes like Market Access Initiatives (MAI) and Market Development Assistance (MDA), TEA said in a release implying that the sum was paltry compared to the 17 billion US dollar grossed by the sector in 2015 to 2016.

The association also urged the minister to push for Free Trade Agreement (FTA) or at least Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with Britain and 28 other EU countries, the lack of which creating advantage to rival apparel exporting nations like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam.