FM fails to impress garment industry, leaves it confused

Ludhiana: The textile and garment industry is not in a happy mood as is the engineering sector. Despite finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman claiming to have given relief to the sector by announcing seven mega textile parks in the country and reducing basic customs duty rates on nylon fibre and yarn, caprolactam and nylon chips to 5%, the businessmen said it was too early to say if these decisions were in their favour.

However, they were of the opinion that overall it was a satisfactory Budget, though their sector was neglected and concrete steps should have been taken to address their problems.

A disappointed Harish Dua, executive council member of Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), said, “The garment and textile sector is the biggest employer in the country and Punjab as well. How will setting up of textile parks benefit the MSME units engaged in garment manufacturing? What is even worse is that there is no decrease in the income tax rate and no increase in its exemption limit, which we required the most.”

According to Hemant Abbi, a shawl manufacturer and executive member of Moti Nagar United Factory Association, “None of our concerns, like setting up of a mechanism to control rates of raw material and rationalising the differential GST rates according to sale price of goods, have been taken into consideration. Moreover, there is a confusion over the announcements made regarding the increase and decrease on customs duty on different types of yarns. The exact impact of these will be known only when a detailed analysis is done.”

Rashpal Bhamra, another garment manufacturer, said local sellers and exporters have been given no benefit. “Our industry was in dire need of government help due to the coronavirus pandemic. If the government was not able to reduce taxes, it could have at least introduced incentives for exports to encourage garment manufacturers,” he added.