"The country's textile exports stood at $40 billion last year. If the government eases the tariff burden we can easily add another $4-5 billion," said Manikam Ramaswami, Chairman, The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council Of India (TEXPROCIL) at the export award function held in Mumbai last Friday.
“We have been able to identify the requirements in trade policy that will ensure harmony across the value chain and clearly articulated it. No more quantity restrictions for any part of the value chain... All parts of the value chain will be able to access international prices. Draw back calculation will be modular – and incentives will start from the finished goods and flow up stream with smaller numbers to ensure that at all times Indian products from ‘cotton to yarns to fabrics’ will be available cheaper to Indian value-adding companies, so that the value addition within India gets encouraged.”
Highlighting the challenges of this sector, Manikam Ramaswami said, “Indian textile industry, however competitive it may be at present, needs cotton at less than or equal to international prices and needs a level playing field when it comes to tariff barriers to perform to its potential.”
According to the TEXPROCIL Chairman, “On the tariff front, we need to have FTAs with EU, Canada and Australia, favourable duty in China similar to Pakistan, Bangladesh etc., who have negotiated reciprocal benefits with China. We have a 34 bn US$ deficit with over 12 bn US$ imports taking place at less than five per cent duty. We need to bargain a reciprocal benefit for our textiles. China imports 20 billion US$ of textiles. We can improve our exports by a huge amount should we get a level playing field.”
The awards were distributed by Minister of Textiles, Santosh Gangwar. “The ministry has been continuously interacting with the captains of the industry and cross-section of other experts for identifying the areas, where major policy push is required to stimulate further growth,” said Santosh Gangwar, Minister of Textiles.
"Textile under the new government is committed to realising the sector's potential in creating millions of jobs and providing solid policy support towards this direction," he added.
Sanjay Kumar Panda, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India; Kiran Soni Gupta, IAS, Textile Commissioner; Vitrndra Uppal, Charman, AEPC, Rakesh Mehra, Chairman, SRTEPC; and R. K. Dalmia, Deputy Charman, TEXPROCIL were the other dignitaries present in the award ceremony.