SGCCI, EPCH sign MoU

SURAT, May 18: The Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry SGCCI and the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts EPCH on Mond...

SURAT, May 18: The Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry SGCCI and the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts EPCH on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding for opening the latter8217;s office in Surat.

The MOU was signed on the last day of a seminar on Problems and Prospects of Zari and Zari Handicrafts8217; organised by the SGCCI, the EPCH and the Surat Zari Udyog on Monday. The council office will be opened at SGCCI premises in Samruddhi and the chamber will provide all secretarial help to the council. The MoU was signed between SGCCI president Prem Sharda and EPCH Chairman Navratan Samradia.

The office will also have an Internet mode to help the local jari industry keep in touch with changes taking place all over the world. The office will have all facilities given by EPCH to other handicrafts sectors. The arrangement will be reviewed after one year, and it will be extended by another year if both the SGCCI and EPCH find it beneficial.

The main demand raised by the Zari Udyog during the seminar was to get a duty-free status. Excise duty, sales tax and countervailing duty on imported goods were a burden on the industry and should be scrapped to give it a fresh lease of life, it said.

Union Textile Minister Kashiram Rana, who presided over the valedictory function, assured the gathering that he would do his bit to ensure some relief for them. He urged them to benefit from the deliberations of the first-ever seminar for development of the trade and for value addition.

Handicrafts Development Commissioner R K Mathur said he would take up the grievances and problems raised during the seminar with ministries concerned. Another demand was to include zari on All-India Handicrafts Board.

Referring to a Supreme Court judgement which says use of machines prohibits a good from being called handicrafts, the participants demanded the passage of a bill in Parliament to treat goods manufactured on machines also as a handicraft.

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Executive director of the council Rakesh Kumar said the zari businessmen were demanding 100 per cent drawback for countervailing duty. Participants said the industry urgently needed modernisation and to make that possible the government should allow duty-free import of machinery worth up to Rs 15 lakh. Research and development facilities in Surat and group insurance scheme for zari workers were among other demands raised at the seminar.