The textile and clothing industry has welcomed the announcements in the Union Budget calling it growth-oriented and positive.
K.V. Srinivasan, chairman of the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council, has said in a press note that implementation of the Remission of Duties and Taxes and Exported Products will go a long way in improving the competitiveness of the textile products in the export market. He also welcomed the measures announced for the MSME sector.
According to T. Rajkumar, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, the Government has considered one of the long-pending demands of the industry to review the Rules of Origin and FTA to curtail cheap imports from other countries. This decision will help the sector in the long run. He thanked Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani for taking forward the demands of the industry.
Chairman of Apparel Export Promotion Council, A. Sakthivel, said in a press release the Finance Minister has effectively addressed some of the key issues of the sector especially in areas such as ease of doing business. The refund of duties and taxes is an important step as there was significant shrinkage in policy support in the last few months. The Government should expedite FTAs with countries such as Australia, Canada and the EU, he said.
Ashwin Chandran, chairman of Southern India Mills’ Association, pointed out that PTA (Purified Terephthalic Acid ) attracts anti-dumping duty from $ 27 to $ 160 per tonnes depending upon the country of origin and India often faces shortage of PTA. This has curtailed the capacity utilisation of the polyester segment industry. He has said that this announcement has come as a boost for the PTA users and the entire man-made fibre textiles and clothing segment. Mr. Chandran also appealed to the government to announce a special scheme for cotton development. He said the Ministry of Textiles has already submitted a proposal for Technology Mission on Cotton – II.
The Indian Texpreneurs Federation said in a press release that the Budget has brought in structural reforms for the textile industry. With the abolition of anti-dumping duty on PTA, the Indian textile sector can move towards capturing 10 % share in the US market as against the current share of 2.5 %. Reviewing the Rules of Origin will help the textile sector in a big way.
The Tiruppur Exporters’ Association president Raja M. Shanmugham said the launch of NIRVIK will support small garment exporters. According to the South India Spinners Association, while several measures announced in the Budget will help the small-scale spinners, the demand to reduce the margin money for purchase of raw material using cash credit has not been met. Similarly. the need for long term loans has not been met.
