Increase in duty will discourage cheap import of textile products: Irani

The Dollar Business Bureau

Textiles Minister Smriti Zubin Irani said on Tuesday that the hike in customs duty on silk and manmade fibre, announced in the Budget, will discourage cheap imports of textile products from China and benefit the local manufacturers.

“Increase in customs duty on silk and manmade fibre will discourage cheap Chinese textile products from flooding the market and benefit domestic manufacturers in the power loom sector,” Irani said while addressing media in New Delhi on Budget allocation for the Ministry.

On reduction of corporate tax to 25% from 30% announced in the Budget, the Minister said that reclassification of micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs) and reduction in tax by 5% of enterprises having turnover up to Rs.250 crore will help the manufacturing and increase employability in the textiles sector.

“Of the Rs.6000 crore special package, which was announced in 2016, for the textiles sector, Rs.1800 crore have already been released and Rs.300 crore will be released during the current financial year,” Irani informed.

In the Budget 2018-19, an outlay of Rs 7,148 crore has been proposed for the textile sector.

The Minister also spoke about 100% increase in allocation for textiles sector for skill development.

“The correction in the GST (Goods and Services Tax) rates on hand made and machine made garments has created ease of doing business in these sectors,” she said.

The rate of GST on yarn has been reduced to 12% from 18% and on job work has been cut down to 5% from 18%. Support for merchandise scheme has been enhanced from 2% to 5% for the apparel sector.

Attributing the 16% growth in apparel sector to the effective implementation of subsidy schemes, Irani said that the Government has disbursed Rs.138 crore to 28000 weavers under the Mudra Loan Yojana and 1.8 lakh workers from garment industry have formally joined the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

She further said that the second round of Hastkala Shivirs will be organised from February 19 to 24 in various parts of the country with a special focus on North East region, in order to encourage weavers.

In the first round Hastkala Shivirs, 394 camps were held in 247 districts all over the country from October 7 to 17 last year.