SRTEPC made these demands in a memorandum submitted to the union commerce minister Ramkrishna Hegde on Saturday here. SRTEPC said that recent decision permitting DEPB transferability only on realisation of export proceeds has adversely affected the liquidity position of the exporters which has slowed down their export activity. Similarly, the recent policy announced by RBI to allow export credit at the rate of 6.5 per cent against incremental exports was an illusion as the very concept was impractical. Instead, the rate of interest on export credit given against all exports should be brought down to 6.5 per cent which the authorities have accepted as the rate of interest that prevails in other exporting countries.

SRTEPC said thatsynthetic and rayon textile hold a large export potential and added that it has drawn up a programme to achieve a performance of Rs 7,000 crore by the turn of the century. However, the current situation arising on account of the currency and other turmoil in the East Asian countries was not anticipated.

SRTEPC chairman RL Toshniwal said that SRTEPC was committed to achieve a higher growth rate in its export trade provided a proper policy support was available. He demanded that a task force comprising senior officials of DGFT, ministry of textiles and representatives of SRTEPC be constituted to go into the productive and export capability of the synthetic and rayon textile industry.

The task force may submit its report within three months so that action on its recommendations may help to generate additional exports in the current year itself. SRTEPC said that exports of synthetic and rayon textiles during 1997-98 exceeded $1 billion and achieved a growth rate of 11 per cent. SRTEPC had set a growth ratetarget of 15 per cent, which later at the instance of the union commerce ministry had been raised to 20 per cent.