Surat textile supplies to Delhi likely to be hit hard over SC order

Major blow for textile traders and transporters from Surat, who supplies man-made fabrics (MMF) including saris and dress materials worth Rs 20 crore to the national capital Delhi on daily basis as Supreme Court (SC) order ban entry of goods vehicle in Delhi and hiking environment compensatory charges by 100 percent.

Textile traders believe Supreme Court’s orders will increase the prices of textile goods supplied from Surat and other textile manufacturing centers.

According to Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s (SG textile committee chairman Devkishan Manghani, it’s going to be tough for wholesalers in Delhi to manage loading and off-loading of textile goods. The overhead expenses, including transport and labour costs, will increase drastically.

The wholesalers in Delhi will have to bear extra expense of Rs 200 per parcel – one parcel contains roughly 150 saris and dress materials.

Industry sources said that the textile goods from Delhi, country’s biggest market for the low-cost saris ranging from Rs 200 to Rs 300, are further supplied to Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal.

The court clarifies that no vehicle registered in 2005 or prior years shall be allowed to enter Delhi even after payment of enhanced green cess. For the rest of the commercial vehicles registered after 2005, the cess has now been doubled – Rs 700 to Rs 1,400 for light commercial vehicles and Rs 1,300 to Rs 2,600 for heavy commercial vehicles.

STGTA president Yuvraj Deshle said that around 400 trucks leave for Delhi with textile goods daily. Most of these transport trucks are registered prior to 2005 and hence will not be allowed entry into Delhi. These vehicles will have to dump the goods on national highway outside Delhi. They have conveyed this to textile traders who will ask their parties in Delhi to make alternative arrangement for loading and off-loading of the goods.

As over 75 percent of transport trucks that carry the textile goods from Surat are registered before 2005 they can’t sell their old transport trucks to do business in Delhi.