The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA), welcoming the interim Union Budget, hoped that the demands of the textile industry relating to the raw material issues and few other industry demands might be considered in the full-fledged budget.
SK Sundararaman, Chairman, SIMA, in a release said the overall increased allocation of around 27.60 per cent for the Ministry of Textiles for the year 2024-25 when compared to the previous year. This is towards various schemes being operated by them including PM MITRA Park, NITTM, A-TUFS, ISDS, RoTDEP and RoSCTL., apart from making allocation for Cotton Corporation of India to exercise MSP operation for cotton.
The Association had sought for removal of 11 per cent import duty on ELS cotton, exempting the same for other cotton varieties exclusively during off season (April to October) to protect the interests of farmers. It also sought announcement of Technology Mission on Cotton- II to increase the cotton production, productivity and doubling the farmers’ income..
Exempting the manmade fibre imported under the Advance Authorization Scheme from the respective Quality Control Orders and exempting manmade fibres that are not produced indigenously from the Quality Control orders were some of the other requests from the association. They hoped that the government would consider these measures in the full-fledged budget, the release said.