The Cotton Textile Promotion Council of India (Texprocil) feels the Export-Import policy has given a raw deal to the textile industry, the second largest employment provider in the country.

Mainstream cotton textile products, which face high tariff barriers and preferential treatment by importing countries, were given a duty credit scrip of 2 per cent while handlooms, carpets, coir products enjoy higher rates of 2-5 per cent under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme, said Texprocil in a statement.

RK Dalmia, Chairman of Texprocil, said the cotton yarn sector has been totally ignored at a time when exports of this product have declined sharply and face high logistics costs when exported to markets like Latin America.

“Can the Government achieve the export target of $900 billion in the next five years by promoting handloom and coir products,” asked Dalmia. He also regretted that no announcement was made on the extension of interest rate subvention at a time when the industry has to bear high capital costs, which is affecting this labour-intensive industry.

Despite growing opportunities for textiles products such as yarn, fabrics and made-ups to China, the Government has not included these items under market access negotiations with that country, he said.

If the tariffs on fabrics exported to China are reduced to 5 per cent or less, from the present level of 10 per cent, Indian exports to China can be increased substantially as this will link up with the value chain in the region, he said.

Similarly, efforts should be made to negotiate tariff reductions with South East Asian countries such as Vietnam to link up with the value chain in those regions, said Dalmia.

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