Surat: Textile traders, facing tough times for the past several months, have pinned their hopes on Ramzan festival in the first week of March for a business-turnaround.

The country’s largest man-made fabric (MMF) wholesale market in the city is eyeing Rs1,000 crore worth of business in the coming days with supply of saris and dress material to different parts of the country.

Those connected with the city’s textile trade, bleeding since the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) with the turnover of polyester fabric plummeting 40 per cent, are elated. The daily turnover in the markets that reduced from Rs110 crore to Rs75 crore post-GST has started going up. There is demand for low-cost dress material, fabrics and saris because of Ramzan festival.

Industry sources said Surat is the only centre in the country that manufactures cheap fabrics, suited for consumers in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kolkata. Saris, dresses and burqa material cost just around Rs200 per piece.

Federation of Surat Textile Traders’ Association (FOSTTA) secretary Champalal Bothra said, “It’s Diwali for low-cost sari traders in Surat. We estimate Ramzan festival to churn out business to the tune of Rs1,000 crore.”

Business was slack for Sanjay Bansal, a wholesale trader, dealing in low-cost saris in Salabatpura before Diwali festival. Thanks to Ramzan festival, Bansal is busy dispatching orders for low-cost saris ordered by his buyers n Chattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Bansal has dispatched a consignment containing 50,000 low-cost saris priced between Rs100 and Rs150 per piece and received fresh order for another 25,000 saris from Rajasthan.

“We receive orders directly from buyers, so we do not know who is buying how much quantity. In all, I have orders for 75,000 low-cost saris, burqa fabrics from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh,” Bansal said.

Published On : 27-04-2019

Source : Times of India