As many as 10 textile industry associations have written to the Centre seeking removal of anti-dumping duty on import of Viscose Staple Fibre (VSF).
The Union Ministry of Textiles has set a target of $ 350 billion market size for the Indian textile and clothing sector, to be achieved by 2025. The associations said that the target can be achieved with growth in export of man-made fibre (MMF) products. However, MMF and filament yarn are not available at internationally competitive prices to the Indian textile and clothing sector.
According to a press release from the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, one of the associations that has represented to the Central Government, the associations pointed out that cotton is available to the domestic industry at competitive prices and hence it is the engine of growth for the Indian textile and clothing sector.
The stakeholders in the VSF value chain pointed out that India is the second largest producer of MMF. But, the share of MMF in total textile and clothing exports is only 20 %. In China, the share of MMF products stands at 80 %. The Indian textile industry is unable to capture the market opportunities abroad compared to countries such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistand and Indonesia since the price of VSF is high in India.
During the last four years, import of VSF spun yarn increased 27 times. The Union Government helped the MMF sector by removing anti-dumping duty on PTA, which is a major raw material for polyester staple fibre and by rejecting the proposal of anti-dumping duty on VSF. However, VSF is protected with anti-dumping duty and this affects the entire viscose staple fibre textile value chain. VSF attracts anti-dumping duty of 0.103 $ to 0.512 $ a kg.
If the Centre removed the anti-dumping duty on VSF, it will align the domestic prices with the global VSF prices making the entire Indian textile value chain globally competitive.
