They discuss measures needed to revive the sector.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met representatives of the textile industry in Chennai on Tuesday and had discussions for more than an hour on measures needed to revive the sector.

Prabhu Dhamodharan, convenor of Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF), who took part in the meeting, said one of the common demands of the industry was structural changes for man-made fibre (MMF) sector. There was a need to remove the anti-dumping duty on MMF and rationalise GST for this segment. While India is competitive in the international market for several cotton products, it is not so for MMF products.

The industry should be able to tap opportunities in the global market in synthetic products.

Another demand placed by the industry is extension of Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (ROSCTL) schemes, now available to garments and made-ups, for yarn and fabric too.

The ITF also suggested that the government comes out with a system to bring the MNC brands to the manufacturing clusters and engage them directly with the suppliers. This will help reduce imports, he said. The industry also demanded multi-skilling facilities in Tiruppur.

Mr. Dhamodharan said the Minister urged the industry to be equipped so that non-WTO compatible schemes are phased out.

The Openend Spinning Mills’ Association said that because of the China-US trade war, the export of nearly 200 containers of open end yarn to China has stopped in the last five months.

There are raw material challenges for the open end spinners.

The GST on recycled PET polyester fibre should be reduced to 12 % from 18 %. The open end spinners produce nearly 10 lakh kg of yarn from recycled PET bottle fibre.

Published On : 11-09-2019

Source : The Hindu