Garments and leather sectors feel the heat

KOLKATA: Shabdab Ahmed, a van-rickshaw puller, felt the demonetisation heat waiting in front of Zabbar market — the biggest garment retail outlet market in Metiabruz — on Sunday morning. In spite of waiting for four hours — from 4am to 8am — he didn’t get any customer. On any usual day, he earns around Rs 500 to Rs 600 and on a ‘haat day’ — the Saturdays and Sundays — the earning goes up to Rs 1000.
“On a ‘haat day’ people from outside the state come to purchase and hence, there is a flurry of business.On a normal day, the supply is made to the local market. Now the situation is so bad that neither people from other states nor the people from the local markets are coming here. The transactions happen here on liquid money, so things are all the more bad. People are going to banks, how can they come to the market now?” Ahmed asked.
Shabdab is not alone. The garments industry that directly and indirectly employs more than 2 core people of the state is one of the worst hit industry. Business has come down by 20% to 22% in Metiabruz, Chattabaazar in South 24-Parganas, Kiddeprore and Howrah’s Unsani and Bankra.
According to the West Bengal Industry Report 2015, the state has a sizeable garments industry generating annually about Rs 720 crore in wage income. It’s virtually an iceberg, with a small registered and formal portion and a vast unregistered and submerged informal portion. The informal part does not only cover only tiny, family-based units, it also includes manufacturers operating several machines which technically qualify for registration under the Factories Act.
“The bigger manufacturing units are not hit because their business mainly depend on export. The export market is still running because you don’t need liquid money for the transactions. But, the medium and small manufacturing units that depend on the local and inter-state market have taken a hit. It’s business that runs on daily transaction basis. The families are also being run on that,” said president of West Bengal Garment Manufacturing Association, Samsuddin Mondal.
Shaeed Sk, who carries out his business from a 4-ft by 4-ft stall at Zabbar market, said, “On every ‘haat day’, I have to give Rs 2500 as rent to the stall owner to sit there for eight hours. I can’t even sit properly. It is on sub-rent and I can’t even sit properly. I have to stand the whole day and do my business. This is the fourth week running and I can’t even even recover the daily rent. If this continues then I will have to leave the place,” he said.
The leather industry, where the entire business — from procurement to finished products — is run on liquid money has also been hit. “There are 297 tanneries in Bantala leather complex and most of them are suffering from funds crunch. The tanneries need to procure the skin hide — the raw materials from the meat shops in villages and cities and they won’t do business on credit,” said president of Tiljala leather manufacturers’ association Golam Mohammed.