Textile tangle

We in the textile industry do not need any support in the form of incentives but need policy support. Here is what India as a country needs for a competitive textile industry

- Removal of hank yarn obligation for the spinning industry.

- Inverted GST structure from fiber to fabric in the MMF sector, at 18% for fiber, 12% for yarn and 5% for fabric and no refund at fabric stage the tax burden is pushing up costs at fabric stage and is making Indian fabric non competitive.

- GST on power, transport and real estate. These sectors are out of GST regime. If brought into the GST regime will help push up each of the sectors viz spinning, weaving and garmenting by 1% each

- Scrap anti-dumping duty on monopoly products like polyester filament, viscose filament and fiber and acrylics and spandex.

- FTA with SAFTA , now duty free imports are available from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and host of LDC countries who can easily use Chinese of Indonesian fabric. If rules of origin are set that Indian yarn and fabric needs to be used Indian exports from textiles will go up.

No incentives are needed. Just policy help

Sri Kannapiran Mills Limited

Is keeping fixed deposits in State Bank of India, the country’s largest commercial bank, becoming a risky proposition? As a retired person, I think so. I have put my life’s savings in a Kolkata branch but now find, much to my horror, that the principal amount of the FD is getting depleted thanks to the much-vaunted SBI brand of efficiency. The bank has deducted nearly ₹20,000 from the principal amount on the grounds that it did not deduct enough tax in the past on the interest income on the FD. How can the bank touch my FD without informing me, more so when I have enough funds in my Savings Bank account in the same branch? Alternatively, the bank could have refrained from paying me the full interest amount due on my FD. Tax can be collected only on interest income and certainly not on principal amount of FD. If the bank had failed to deduct tax on time in the past, it is not my fault, and it is a lapse on the bank’s part. Why should I suffer for something for which I am not responsible for? I fear that in this way my whole savings might disappear one day. I have approached different levels in the bank but all I get is the stock reply: it is a system generated failure. The system remains idle when thousands of crores of rupees of bank money are siphoned off by big business and industrialists but becomes hyperactive when it comes to fleecing small depositors on one pretext or the other. An FD is a contract and what the SBI has done is a breach of contract.

Kolkata

This is in reference to ‘IAF hits runway again for a new fighter’ (April 24). We feel that the statement “HAL, which already has infrastructure and experience for aircraft assembly, has so far not proved to be a worthy recipient of technology, while private players will take some time to establish the infrastructure (but eventually contribute hugely to India’s stature as an aerospace power)”, is unfair to HAL.

HAL, as the premier aeronautical complex in Asia, has built over 4,000 aircraft so far of which 14 types were under license from various OEMs and design agencies from UK, France and Russia. The licensors included reputed companies such as BAE Systems, Eurocopter, Sukhoi Aircraft Design Bureau etc.

There are many companies of world repute which are in discussions with HAL for their programs. Also, under the latest technology transfer projects, HAL has built over 180 Su 30 MkI aircraft and 100 Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer in short timeframes.

Notwithstanding the criticism by the retired IAF officer, HAL has assimilated all high end technologies for every project it has undertaken and has built a very strong supply chain eco-system in India for aviation and aerospace sector. It is worth mentioning that most of the private industries in India in the Defence sector today have emerged through association with HAL.

Chief of Media Communications, HAL, Bengaluru

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