Textiles and clothing manufacturers have asked the Government to bring down taxes on a range of products including machinery, branded garments and imported fibre to help them stay competitive in the domestic and export markets.
Imports of special machinery for manufacturing synthetic garments and process fibres should be allowed at zero duty to promote manufacture of synthetic garments that have a major market globally, the Apparel Export Promotion Council said in its wish-list for Budget 2013-14.
The council also pitched for withdrawal of 12 per cent excise duty imposed last year on branded garments in order to fight competition from Bangladesh. “According to a recent agreement with Bangladesh, garments imported from the country do not attract any customs duty. To help the industry face competition from Bangladesh and protect jobs, we request the Government to remove the excise duty imposed on branded readymade garments,” the memorandum said.
The duty on man-made fibres and their raw materials should be reduced to 8 per cent from 12 per cent to remedy the mismatch between the fibre consumption patterns in India and our major importing countries, the Confederation of Indian Textile Industries demanded in a separate pre-Budget memorandum.
“Both the industry and Government have recognised the need for a fibre neutral excise regime for the textiles industry, in order to realise the immense potential for growth that exists in our man-made fibre based products,” the petition said.
Both bodies asked the Government to raise exemption limit for service tax from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh and reduce the rate of service tax to 10 per cent from 12 per cent in order to cut down the tax burden on industry.
amiti.sen@thehindu.co.in