The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Looking forward to more sops to save the textile industry: forum

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Friday, Jan 09, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Looking forward to more sops to save the textile industry: forum

Staff Reporter

KARUR: The New Year stimulus package and the concessions announced for textile exporters is a welcome move by the Central government but fall well short of the sagging industry’s demand, the textile exporters have opined. They have sought more sops such as withdrawal of fringe benefit tax, service tax, increase in duty drawback, pruning of interest on export packing credit and waiver of bank charges to help revive the fortunes of the industry.

In a memorandum to the Prime Minister, Karur Textile Forum (KTF) has pointed out that the employment intensive textile industry is fighting for survival and the present trends indicate that the prospects for 2009 was also not very rosy. It is in these circumstances that the exporters look up to the Central government to pep up the industry.

To achieve that the textile export industry wanted the Centre to take certain immediate steps. The demands placed before the Government include complete withdrawal of fringe benefit tax and service tax, refund of all service tax paid from April 2008, increase in drawback for export by atleast four per cent, lowering to seven per cent the interest on export packing credit, extending an incentive of atleast five percent on the freight on board value of handloom product exports and waiver of all bank charges.

Stating that the industry is fighting to protect itself, the KTF President M. Sivakkannan has urged the Prime Minister to bring down to eight per cent the interest on term loan and working capital, a twenty four month moratorium on term loan repayment, removal of the existing one per cent cess on sale of cotton waste. The Centre should use its good offices to workout a mechanism in tandem with the State government to ensure uninterrupted power supply to labour intense industries.

In Tamil Nadu third party sale of wind energy is not allowed.

This should be made available to wind energy generated. For captive users the wind energy can be banked up to March 31 and quantity so banked can be adjusted in the next month.

The units banked could be sold to TNEB and seventy five per cent of the exiting price. Due to power cuts the bank energy was selling. Hence the TNEB should buy energy at the regular price not at seventy five per cent, pointed out Mr. Sivakkannan.

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