over the last 2-3 years, the cost of production has increased, but garment and hosiery business owners, producers,
and manufacturers have not raised prices and are not raising
them either. A simple fact is that we, along with our families,
especially the women in our households, are worried about the
rapid rise in the prices of tomatoes, potatoes, chocolates, medicines, etc. What should we do? If there is any industry in India
that remains unaffected by inflation and is the cheapest, it is
the garment and hosiery industries. This is happening even
when the country’s population has increased by 15 crore over
the past decade. With an increase in people’s income, the demand for textile products has also increased. Even in villages,
the demand for good-looking clothes and fabrics among the
lower-income groups has increased drastically and continues to
rise. The increase in textile consumption and the improvement
in the quality of fabrics can be seen in the beautiful changes
happening on streets and alleys in recent years.
Even the prices of basic items made from Khadi, such as vests,
underwear, simple bras, panties, and towels, are cheaper than
Khadi kurtas and Khadi caps. Khadi products are subsidized
by 25% to 33%, but the prices of vests, underwear,
handkerchiefs, blankets, shirts, pajamas, etc., are 3 to 4 times
higher. In fact, if you are staying at a hotel like the Taj Mahal
and you want to get your vest or underwear dry-cleaned or
laundered, the cleaning charges will be much higher than the
price of new vests, underwear, and T-shirts—possibly several
times more.
Clearly, due to competition, the prices of hosiery, garments,
and home textiles have not increased. Despite overstocking
and inventory, have the costs not risen? Have labor wages not
increased? Have the prices of electricity, rent, transportation,
packaging materials used in hosiery and garment industries
not increased? Have the prices of machinery, spare parts, local
municipal taxes, and transportation costs not increased? If
every industry and business owner is facing these rising costs,
why haven’t the prices gone up? What is holding them back? I
believe that due to our internal weakness and competition, we
are not increasing the prices, and many companies are even
reducing their prices out of helplessness. This means the profit
margins are taking a hit.
You must have heard on television that the prices of
everything are rising so much that many industries expect
their business profits to increase by 5%. But in the hosiery and
garment sectors, people barely manage to make 1 or 2%. With
inflation increasing by 8% annually, as acknowledged by the
RBI, how can such diminishing profits continue, especially
when, in real terms, 5% profit at the end of the year will be
reduced to just 4.5% due to inflation? How will this continue?
We need to wake up and take steps to improve the industry.
The data is all available, so why is our industry falling behind?
Won’t continuous reductions in profit or the complete loss of
profit cause major difficulties for many business owners in this
industry? We must trust that prices will rise, and that people
will not stop buying clothes. India is no longer the India of
1950-1975. The income of every citizen has continuously
increased.This business/industry may need to be abandoned if
prices do not rise. Recently, there has been a proposal to
increase the GST rates on garments priced above Rs. 1000 or
Rs. 1500. This will be another wrong step, and increasing the
prices of various hosiery and garment items is inevitable. The
industry is requesting the government not to raise taxes, as an
increase in GST tax in such difficult circumstances will further
complicate matters. Many studies of various industries show
that fierce competition has led to a drastic reduction in profits,
causing many industries to shut down under such
circumstances. Not raising prices affects the earnings of
workers, employees, suppliers, and shareholders involved in
the hosiery and garment industry. As a result, the demand in the domestic market decreases sharply, affecting the national
economy. When the income of workers and employees in the
textile industry decreases in real terms, how
will they spend more in the market on food,
housing, schooling, hospital bills, transport,
or travel? This directly impacts India’s
development and growth plans. Moreover,
due to the decreasing profit margins, future
generations may not want to work in this
industry, especially when more profitable
industries emerge, inspired by India’s
development. The textile, garment, and
hosiery industries are already at the lower
end in terms of profit margins. To align with
the country’s economic changes, our textile,
garment, and hosiery industries must adapt.
Several years ago, saree traders in Surat
were so engaged in cutthroat competition
that every time you turned on the TV, ads
from saree brands would follow one after
another. This over-saturation confused and misled the
customers, and eventually, all the brands disappeared. A
similar problem exists for hosiery and apparel: the global
business downturn, economic recession, and conflicts in 3-4
regions have severely reduced exports.
Moreover, competition from China, Vietnam,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and several small
island nations has intensified.
In textiles, instead of an increase, the prices
decreased by 2.14% in the last 22-23 years.
Data for 2024 is not yet available. So, are
workers and owners in the textile, hosiery,
and garment industries unaffected by the
rising inflation in food, housing, school fees,
hospital bills, transport, and travel? Have the
rates of sewing, knitting, dyeing, and
processing not increased?
Industry thinkers and textile industry leaders
and associations need to wake up and start
working on personal and collective solutions.
This will pave the way for the growth of the
industry and the nation. There are paths, and
the industry must forge ahead with collective strength and
unity. Victory lies beyond fear.