Industry bodies demand regulation of rising apparel imports from neighbouring countries

New Delhi, July 27 (KNN) NITI Aayog recently convened a meeting with textile industry organisations where representatives said that it's critical to regulate the escalating imports of apparel from countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and others. 

The country’s think tank had discussion with the textile industry representatives on tax anomalies throughout the entire textile value chain with an aim to eliminate tax-related hurdles that restrict their growth.

Representatives from industry associations such as CITI, SIMA, CMAI, PDEXCIL, TEXPROCIL, NITMA, and others attended the meeting. 

The representatives raised several issues, including the import duty on cotton, the inverted duty structure in the MMF textile value chain, textile processing and job work, and the import duty on textile machinery. 

There's an industry-wide demand to increase the Basic Custom Duty (BCD) from 5% to 10% to curb the growing imports of MMF yarn. 

They have also sought for exemption of job works in the MSME sector from the purview of GST and suggest that tax-related policies should not be changed midway through the financial year.

Instead, such policies should remain consistent for the entirety of the financial year, as per industry sentiments.

NITI Aayog has asked for further suggestions from the industry and assured their support for policy decisions that would benefit the textile industry as a whole.   (KNN Bureau)