The New Indian Express : Jun 29, 2020, 08:44 PM
CHENNAI: Providing much needed relief to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) medical coveralls manufacturers, the Centre on Monday allowed exports with a monthly quota of 50 lakh.Firms interested in exporting them will have to apply for licences.The notification issued by the ministry of commerce and industry says, "A monthly quota of 50 lakh PPE medical coveralls for COVID-19 units has been fixed for the issuance of export licences to eligible applicants to export PPE medical coveralls for COVID-19 as per the criteria to be separately issued in a trade notice."The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) had urged the Centre to lift the ban on exports on PPE coveralls as they were losing export business worth crores of rupees to neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh.The AEPC had claimed that manufacturers of PPE coveralls, who invested crores in PPE manufacturing equipment, were facing difficulties as prices of the coveralls were crashing due to oversupply. Many were also struggling with unsold inventories.“The move opens the entire global market for our domestic players who were fast enough to seize this opportunity of producing and supplying PPE kits as the world struggles to control coronavirus pandemic,” said AEPC chairman, A Sakthivel.He further added that production of PPEs is more than sufficient to cater to the needs of the country and allowing exports of PPE items will not only help the health workers across the world but also support the revival of the apparel industry in the country.The country now produces more than 8 lakh PPE pieces per day, the second largest producing country in the world. According to AEPC, the global market for PPEs is estimated to be more than USD 60 billion over the next five years and India has the potential to grab a lion's share of it.