India partially lifts PPE export ban, 5 mn monthly cap

30 Jun '20

2 min read

Pic: Shutterstock

India has partially lifted its ban on export of personal protective equipment, allowing medical textile manufacturers to export up to five million such units every month now. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) had first banned such export towards the end of January. Indian firms now have excess capacity even after catering to additional demand.

The monthly cap may be increased later.

“Boosting Make in India exports, Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) medical coveralls for COVID-19 have been allowed with a monthly export quota of 50 lakh (five million),” said minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal in a tweet.

Since March 30, where a little over 3,000 PPEs were manufactured a day, over 1,100 firms in the country manufacture anywhere between 700,000-800,000 PPEs daily now, a top Indian newspaper reported citing an unnamed government official.

Apart from supplying to the central government, over 250 licenced sellers are registered on the government’s e-marketplace (GeM portal) to cater to extra demand by states.

“The PPE manufacturers showed extraordinary enterprise and nimbleness in their ability to rejig large production facilities to manufacture PPEs … The government should soon extend the export opportunity for N95 masks as well,” said Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) chairman Dr A Sakthivel, adding that the size of the global market for PPEs is expected to be more than $60 billion over the next five years.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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