Textile industry welcomes announcement on parks in Budget

(EDS: Adding SIMA's reaction) Coimbatore, Feb 1 (PTI): The textile industry on Mondaywelcomed the Union Budget presented by Finance MinisterNirmala Seetharaman, particularly the announcement ontextile and apparel parks.

In a statement here, the Indian Texpreneurs Federation(ITF) appreciated the thrust given to the textile sector byproposing the seven mega integrated textile region andapparel parks (MITRA).

With the concept of the parks with a plug-and-playmodel, the textile and apparel sector, particularly the SMEs(small and medium enterprises), can build competitiveness inmanufacturing, ITF convenor Prabhu Dhamodharan said in thestatement.

Further, the parks can be aligned with environmental,social and governance goals to attract international buyersas well as investors, he said.

Also lauded was the mention of a three-year period tocapitalise the opportunities emerging from China and TamilNadu with a robust manufacturing eco system, he said.

Welcoming the budget, president of Tirupur ExportersAssociation Raja M Shanmugham termed it as a pragmatic onepresented to address all issues in the sectors.

While appreciating the parks scheme, he said as expected,this would create global champions in exports and was hopefulthat Tirupur exporters would opt to set up the units in theparks.

He thanked the government for allotting Rs 700 crore forthe Amended Technology Upgradation Scheme (ATUFs) againstRs 545 crore in the last budget which, he said, would helpclear the pending capital subsidy.

Also, he appreciated the allocation of Rs 30 crore forexport promotion studies against Rs 5 crore in the lastBudget, a requirement of the industry to know the exportpotential of specified products in the unexplored markets.

Raja Shanmugham expressed happiness over the allocationof Rs 100 crore for the integrated scheme for skilldevelopment.

On rationalisation of duties on raw material for man-madetextiles, Dhamodharan and Raja Shanmugham welcomed thereduction of the basic customs duty on nylon chips, nylonfibre and yarn.

Shanmugam was thankful for allowing new tax exemption forthe notified affordable rental housing projects, which wasrequested by the association in the pre-Budget memorandum tosupport migrant workers.

He was all-praise for allowing women to work on nightshifts with adequate protection.

The Southern India Mills Association (SIMA) wanted thePrime Minister to withdraw the levy of 10 per cent importduty on cotton and cotton waste to sustain globalcompetition.

The duty would not benefit the cotton farmers as thenormal import of 12 to 14 lakh bales per year accounts onlyaround 3 per cent of the cotton production in the country.

After the introduction of BT cotton that accounts over97 per cent of the cotton produced in the country, the cottontextile industry has to import organic cotton, contamination-free cotton to the tune of 10 to 12 lakh bales per year tomeet the demands of the global customers, the associationsaid.

SIMA chairman Ashwin Chandran said the country wasalready flooded with cheaper imports of readymade clothesfrom SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Area) countries and wasfacing a crisis.

He said the government had withdrawn the import duty oncotton in July 2008 consequent to the recession in theindustry.

The chairman further said when the duty was in force,multinationals used to cover major volume of cotton andexport and the industry had to import cotton at a higherprice.

This affected foreign exchange, therefore the PrimeMinister has to take steps to withdraw the 5 per cent BCD(basic customs duty) and 5 per cent agricultureinfrastructure and development cess (AIDC) and also 10 percent BCD on cotton waste crisis.