The government plans to set up ‘Bharat Park’, an India-specific trade zone with a showroom and warehouse in the UAE. Goods Made in India will be displayed and stored for the global audience in the Park.

Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Textiles and Commerce said the Bharat Park will facilitate other countries to buy Indian goods and the payment will be secured in UAE.

Urging the industry to maintain the quality of goods exported from India, he said the Bureau of Indian Standard will spend ₹40 crore to set up 21 testing laboratories at various places in India.

Future of textiles

The future of the textile industry belonged to Man Made Fibre Textiles as there are limitations in ensuring enough supply of cotton to meet the growing demand, he said at the recent Export Awards function of The Synthetic and Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council.

He urged the industry to use the free trade agreements with Japan, Australia, UAE and South Korea. The current poor utilisation of this opportunity is a matter of great concern for India, he added.

Bhadresh Dodhia, Chairman, SRTEPC said export of man-made fibre textiles was down 9 per cent at $3.1 billion in the first seven months of this fiscal against $3.4 billion in the same period last year, though technical textile exports improved marginally to $1.51 ($1.5 billion).

Dodhia said the industry is confident that textile exports will cross $6 billion in this fiscal and technical textile shipments will cross $3 billion.

SRTEPC will achieve the Government’s export target of $11 billion of man-made fibre and $10 billion of technical textiles by 2030.

Road blocks

SRTEPC has urged the government to cover the entire value chain of MMF textiles under same GST rate and correct the current inverted duty.

Dodhia requested the government to cover the entire value chain of textiles and clothing under the Interest Equalization Scheme.

The GST on fibre is levied at 18 per cent while that on yarn and fabrics is 12 per cent and 5 per cent.

This has led to accumulation of huge input tax credits with the manufacturers and adding up to cost of production besides hampering competitiveness in the international market.

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