NEW DELHI – Chemicals and dye-stuff exporters to Pakistan stare at abusiness loss of Rs 3,000 crore as a result of deterioration in diplomaticrelations between India and Pakistan. Of these close to Rs 1,000 crore lossis because of uncertainty in payments of the goods already supplied whileremaining Rs 2,000 crore loss is because of uncertainty about the fate oforders already placed by Pakistani buyers.
India exports close to Rs 50,000 crore worth of chemicals and dye-stuffsacross the world. Of these, exports to Pakistan stood at over Rs 3,656.29crore in 2018-19. However, the abolition of the special status of Jammu andKashmir by the Indian government and consequent lowering of India’sdiplomatic status by Pakistan has hit India’s dyestuff manufacturers hard.
“Over 80% of exporters of dye-stuffs are from Gujarat.
Close to 15% of exporters have Pakistan as their sole market,” YogeshParikh, president of Gujarat Dye-stuff Manufacturers Association (GDMA)told media persons in the city on Friday. “The payment cycle consists of90-120 days. We were awaiting payments of goods already supplied toPakistani buyers,” said Parikh.
He also said that businesses welcome the abolition of Article 370 andArticle 35-A of the Constitution of India and stand firmly behind thegovernment. However, he drew attention to the fact that close to 2,000tonnes worth of goods is in transit.
Loss of Pakistan’s market will mean a rise of inventory in short term,which will keep prices of products under pressure, This will forcemanufacturers to look for buyers from other countries like Bangladesh, SriLanka, Vietnam, and Indonesia.