The committee has also sought adequate safeguard measures on imports of fibres, yarns, fabrics and readymade garments. The newly formed National Committee on Textiles and Clothing has urged the government to stop the import of used clothes from China, Bangladesh and Indonesia as the domestic textile industry is reeling under falling exports, rising imports and slowing demand.
The committee has also sought adequate safeguard measures on imports of fibres, yarns, fabrics and readymade garments and called for extending the benefits of enhanced Merchandise Exports under India Scheme and Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies on Export of Garments till overall scheme on Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Product comes into force.
Steering committee: Bogged down by various issues, textile and clothing associations such as Cotton Textile Export Promotion Council, Apparel Export Promotion Council, Clothing Manufacturers Association of India, Synthetic and Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council and Confederation of Indian Textile Industry have formed a steering committee – the National Committee on Textiles and Clothing (NCTC) – under the chairmanship of T Rajkumar, Chairman, CITI.
The NCTC has submitted a memorandum to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and sought a two-year moratorium on interest and loan repayment or provision for additional liquidity to support the financially stressed textile units as a short-term policy measure to bail out the struggling industry. The industry also apprised Goyal of the issues related to GST, the ease of doing business and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiations.
It has urged Cotton Corporation of India to factor in low international prices when procuring cotton under Minimum Support Price to protect the farmers’ interests. Domestic prices are trading firm due to high MSP while prices in global markets have fallen sharply on the back of a bumper crop. This has led to sharp spike in imports even as some domestic farmers are finding it difficult o sell their cotton at MSP to CCI.
Plea to FM: A NCTC delegation led by Rajkumar also met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and submitted a memorandum on the urgent need to release the pending claims under various incentive schemes; urging banks to expeditiously upload documents for release of TUF (Technology Upgradation Fund) subsidy, reducing the margin money for raising working capital from 25 per cent to 10 per cent and extend 5 per cent interest subvention to all textiles and clothing export products.
