AEPC has it's headquarter at Apparel House, Institutional area, Sector-44, Gurgaon-122003

Apparel House also offers 250 permanent showrooms besides Institute of Apparel Management & Headquarters of AEPC's Education and Training Initiatives. Apparel House is equipped with modern state-of-the-art infrastructure having international facility for business with exhibition hall, art gallery, auditorium and conference hall facility. Members take part in various council's activities being organized at Apparel House like Market Week etc.

Rationalization of the excise duty regime - The inverted duty structure that prevailed earlier with higher duties for fibers and filaments and lower for fabric has been rectified to some extent.

Although the optional zero duty route for the cotton value chain has helped a large number of yarn and fabric manufacturers , excise duty route is still adopted by a lot of people in order to take cenvat credit for expenses made on dyes and chemicals, packing and other inputs.

Custom duty - Between 2005-06 and now, custom duty has been progressively reduced from 20% to 10%. For textile machinery it has been further reduced to 5%, since 2005-06, for specified items.

Incentives in 2008-09 through various stimulus packages :

Across-the-board cut of four percent in the ad valorem central value-added tax effected from Dec 2008.

Interest subvention of two percent on export credit for labour intensive sectors was restored in Dec 2008, after withdrawal in September 2008.

Full refund of service tax paid by exporters to foreign agents was another provision added in the December stimulus package.

Limits under the credit guarantee scheme for small enterprises doubled in December stimulus package. Besides this, lock-in period for loans to small firms under credit guarantee scheme reduced.

Import duty on naphtha for use by the power sector reduced to zero. This may have some indirect benefit to the industry through cheaper power.

In Feb 2009, reduction in excise duty and service tax by 2% was announced.

FDI liberalization

AEPC with the assistance of government has come up with a scheme for mobilization of FDI into India in textile and garment sector 

Market Development Assistance As per MDA guidelines, any exporter who is a member of AEPC with atleast 12 months of membership and export turnover of the company less than 15 crores rupees in the preceding financial year can avail the MDA grant for participating in overseas trade fairs. The MDA eligibility area-wise is given below for a particular financial year:

During the year 2008-09 ted through AEPC in different AEPC's overseas fairs. List of exporters, who have received MDA is placed in website, �aepcindia.com' Market Access Initiative

The Council gets MAI subsidy for organizing Mega Shows and Buyer Seller meets. This subsidy is passed on to the members of the Council in subsidizing the cost of the stall in Buyer Seller meets and Mega Shows abroad. Council has done mega show in South Africa during March 2009 an d organizing another mega show in Japan from 22 to 24th July 2009.

Rebate in Training

The members of the Council get a rebate of 40% in the tuition fee for Authorized employees nominated for core courses and 20% rebate in flagship courses in ATDC centers. (Contact: Mr. G.D Gaur, Senior Registrar, Ph: 0124-2708019)

Productivity Improvement Programme

The Council contributes 35% (US $ 6300) of the total implementation cost of $ 18000 for implementing the Productivity /efficiency Improvement Programme to its members. (Contact, Mr. J.D Bakshi, Ph: 0124 208020)

Subsidy in Overseas Training

The Council provides 75% subsidy in the Training Cost for the employees of Export Houses to train their employees at CITA (Clothing Industry Training Authority) Hong Kong. (Contact, Mr. J.D Bakshi, Ph: 0124 208020)

Duty Drawback-

The Council collects duty drawback data and submits it to drawback directorate for facilitating and granting of duty drawback to the members of the Council. On an average Rs. 3200 crores of duty drawback is distributed to the Apparel Exporters per year by the Ministry of Commerce, Govt. of India based on the duty draw back data collected by the Council. At present duty drawback on cotton knitted garments and cotton woven is 8.8%.

Export Performance Certificate

Export Performance Certificate is issued to its members for the purpose of importing trims and embellishments duty free for use in manufacture of textile garments for export.

During financial year 2008-09, EPC for export value Rs. 20428 crores with total entitlement amount of Rs. 612 crores was issued to the council members

covering items:

Fasteners and polywadding materials. Lining and interlining materials including knitted lining and interlining. Inlay cards. Shoulder pads. Buckles. Eyelets. Hooks and eyes. Rivets, collar stays, collar patties. Butterfly and other garment stays including plastic stays, fusible embroidery motifs or prints. Laces. Badges including embroidered badges. velcro tape and embroiderythreads. Sewing. Thread. stones (other than precious & semi precious sequin tape elastic tape & hook tape of width not exceeding 75 mm, cord & cord stopper. toggles, stud. elastic cloth and elastic band. quilted wadding materials, beads for embroidery. sample fabric of total length upto 500 metre imported

Certificate of Origin

The council is issuing/certifying an instrument to establish evidence on origin of goods to be imported into any country.

The above service to the trade is being provided from all the Regional offices of the Council and ATDC centres Fashion Forecast seminars (http://www.aepcindia.com/aepc-initiative )

Market Intelligence- AEPC provides market intelligence through various cluster studies, research reports & journals. 

For the details of different courses please go to http://www.aepcindia.com/aepc-initiative

An assessee aggrieved by an order of Assistant Commissioner/Deputy Commissioner in Service Tax cases, may file an appeal to the Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeal) in duplicate along with a copy of order appealed against. The appeal should be presented within three months from the date of receipt of the decision or order of the Central Excise officer.

Apparel Training and Design Centre(ATDC)

The training activities of ATDC's have been streamlined in 21 ATDC hubs, 20 satellite skill development projects and other centers through, 8 flagships and 6 core courses. The flagship courses aim to improve efficiency, productivity and quality in the Apparel sector while core courses aim to provide required skills and competencies.

Target to roll- out 50,000 students per year

Institute of Apparel Management (IAM)

IAM has announced its academic programmes at IAM campuses at Gurgaon and Sanpada, Mumbai. The long term vision for IAM is to position it as a Multi-varsity to meet the export, domestic, fashion and lifestyle industry requirements for trained managers and design professionals, with a broad base of applied management skills, competencies, and knowledge typical of the dynamic apparel business in global context.

IAM is offering UG and PG programmes under its four tracks namely Fashion & Life Style Design, Apparel Merchandising & Management, Apparel Production Technology & SCM and Fashion Retail & Brand Management.

For the different publications of the council, one can contact the concerned persons as mentioned in the following link (www.aepcindia.com/publications)

he Service Tax assesses are required to file half yearly return in Form ST-3 or ST-3A as applicable, in duplicate , to concerned Superintendent, Central Excise. It should be filed within 25 days from the last day of the half year i.e., by 25th April and 25th October. The return should be accompanied by challans for Service Tax paid.

Assessees having a 15 digit STP code and falling under any of the taxable services can avail of the facility of electronic filing of their Returns.