Surat’s textile traders seek release of payments

Surat: Faced with severe liquidity crisis amid the closure of the majority of the textile markets in the city, traders in country’s largest man-made fabric (MMF) wholesale market are pinning their hopes on their counterparts in other states to infuse liquidity by releasing payments against the goods dispatched before the national lockdown came into force.
The Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association (FOSTTA), apex body of the traders’ fraternity, has started the exercise of writing letters to their counterparts in the wholesale fabric markets in Delhi, Punjab, Bihar, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kolkata, Chennai etc. to release payments due to the traders in Surat to infuse much-needed liquidity.
In a letter, the FOSTTA office-bearers stated that the wholesale textile trade in Surat lost business to the tune of over Rs 10,000 crore in the last 60 days, mainly due to the national lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus. Further, the markets are not likely to reopen any time soon as Covid-19 cases were on the rise.
In such circumstances, the traders are drained of their working capital and were facing severe liquidity crunch to restart the textile trade in near future.
Champalal Bothra, secretary, FOSTTA said, “Payments worth more than Rs 5,000 crore against the supply of saris, dress material, lenghas, choli and home furnishing material is due to the traders in Surat.”