The removal of anti-dumping duty on purified terephthalic acid (PTA), announced in Union Budget 2020-21, is the most important for the textile industry, according to The Clothing Manufacturers’ Association of India (CMAI). PTA is a crucial input for polyester production and the decision will benefit sarees, dress materials, and technical textiles.
“The removal of anti-dumping duty on PTA was a long-standing demand of textile manufacturing value chain. This will potentially open up the man-made fibre (MMF) value chain, and give a fillip to the entire MMF industry and enhance its global competitiveness,” former CMAI president Rahul Mehta said. In addition to sarees and dress materials, home furnishing, sportswear industry, and other segments where polyester is used will greatly benefit from this move.
“Kudos to the Textiles Ministry and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this very bold step,” Mehta said. “Other than this, there are several other measures which could benefit the textile industry, but they appear to be work in progress at this point of time – such as the National Technical Textiles Mission, a review of the Rules of Origin especially in our FTAs, a review of cheap imports of goods being made by the MSME sector, refund of all the taxes and levies for exports, and the targeting of making every district an export hub.”
The proposed financing of Invoices of the MSME sector could again be a huge benefit to the textile and apparel industry, which is largely comprised of MSME units, according to Mehta. “If indeed all these plans fructify as per the stated goals and objectives, this could be a landmark budget for the industry. By and large, a round of applause to Textiles Minister Smriti Irani.”
