World Bank policies ruining country’s textile industry, says MSME forum

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 18

India’s garment exports are continuously decreasing as compared to 2017. Members of World MSME forum allege World Bank had deliberately adopted a discriminatory policy against India resulting in this slump.

“In 2017, India’s garment exports came down from $15.7 billion USD to $14.51 billion USD. Textile exports have also fallen by 11.69 percent in the last five years from $16.24 billion USD to $14.34 billion USD. At the same time, the demand for garments and textiles in the world market is increasing at the rate of 12.3 percent, but the fall in the country’s exports makes it clear that the World Bank has deliberately adopted a discriminatory policy against India,” allege members of World MSME Forum here.

Badish Jindal, president, World MSME Forum, said due to these policies, while India’s exports were falling, imports were increasing rapidly. In these five years, India’s textile and garment imports increased by 25.46 per cent from $7.32 billion USD to $9.18 billion USD during the same period, he added.

“Bangladesh has been given the status of a Least Developed Country by the World Bank due to which importers from Bangladesh get customs duty exemption. To ‘qualify’ as a Least Developed Economy, the country’s per capita Gross National Income should be lower than 1,274 USD. Now, Bangladesh’s per capita GNI is 2,860 while India’s is 2,540 USD. Bangladesh had graduated the status of Least Developed Economy in 2016 itself but still the World Bank is ‘according’ this status to Bangladesh till 2027,” said Jindal.

Voicing similar views, Rahul Aggarwal, secretary, World MSME Forum, said Bangladesh, which exported garments worth $25.8 billion USD in 2017, had now captured 8 per cent of the global market by exporting garments worth $47 billion USD. “Under the WTO rules, Pakistan and Vietnam are given the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) benefit by the USA, UK and the European Union. Due to this status, Pakistan increased its garment and textile exports from $5 billion USD to $14.5 USD billion in last 6 years. This policy is keeping importers from buying India-made products. Due to this treatment, India’s exports have suffered badly,” said Aggarwal.

Jindal said the unemployment rate in India had increased due to such policies of the World Bank.