The Tirupur Exporters' Association (TEA) at an Exporters' Meet held at Tirupur, Panda made an appeal to take up the issue of 24 X 7 customs clearance at the ports, a proposal announced by the Finanace Minister Arun Jaitley in the budget, to expedite the movement of garments.

Union textile secretary, Sanjay Kumar Panda in response to the appeal made has assured the knitwear garment exporters to take up various issues either confronting them or pending for implementation with the concerned ministries and try to resolve them.

The Union Finance Ministry would take up the issue, Panda at the inauguration of the 39th India Knit Fair in Tirupur, said.

The exporters wanted this facility to catch the mother vessels being stationed at Colombo port, for onward movement, particularly from Tutucorin port.

Panda also said that he would take up the issue of 3 percent interest subvention on packing credit with the concerned ministry.

To an appeal made by TEA president, A Shaktivel on Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF), the official said he would take up the issue with Finance Ministry and also banks for early clearance of pending claims of TUF.

In a memorandum submitted to the secretary, TEA said that the exporters were confident that the initiatives taken by the Centre would certainly help knitwear export garment sector to attain more development and reach the target of doubling Tirupur exports in next three years, from Rs 18,000 Crore in 2013-14 to Rs 36,000 crore in 2016-17.

TEA also suggested that the Textile Ministry should have a separate fund of at least Rs 300 crore for market promotional activities instead of going through Commerce Ministry, mainly for participation in international fairs conducted abroad and also international fairs being held in the country.

Currently, Commerce Ministry was providing only Rs 6 crore through schemes like Market Access Initiatives (MAI) and Market Development Assistance (MDA), for market promotion activities, despite a $35 billion worth textile export from the country.

Exporters also want free trade agreement to be signed with EU and Canada, as Bangladesh, being least developed country, was overtaking India in exports.