Shri T. Rajkumar, Chairman, CITI, welcomed the announcements made by the Hon’ble Finance, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman to give urgent relief not only to the common man but also to the Manufacturing sector from the inflationary trends impacting prices. Shri Rajkumar stated that the government is very sensitive towards the concerns of the common man and the recent relief measures like providing Rs. 200 subsidy on LPG cylinders to around 9 crore beneficiaries under PM Ujjwala Yojana, additional fertiliser subsidy to the Indian farmers and slashing prices of petrol and diesel by Rs. 9.5 litre and Rs. 7 per litre will provide the much needed relief to the common man suffering from the rising cost of living due to the increasing inflation.
CITI Chairman further stated that the reduction in excise duty on Petrol and Diesel has come as a big relief to the Textiles and Clothing (T&A) Industry which is presently passing through an unprecedented rise in cotton prices. This central excise reduction on fuel has come as a great relief and directly addresses the logistics costs across the value chain of this geographically dispersed textile industry in India.
Shri Rajkumar also thanked the Government for removal of anti-dumping duty on Elastomeric Filament Yarn (EFY) as it will help the Indian T&A Industry in enhancing its competitiveness in the global markets. He elaborated that the EFY production in the country is very limited and usage of the same in the dress materials especially denim products further create value addition in our textile products and increases our exports many-folds in the denim segment. He said that the decision of removal of ADD on EFY would create a level playing field for the Indian textile industry in the international market and also enable import of high quality EFYs at competitive rates.
CITI Chairman said that cutting the customs duty on plastic product raw materials and their intermediaries, calibrating reduction in customs duty on raw materials and intermediaries for iron and steel and also the reduction of import duty on some raw materials of steel are other welcome steps. These measures would help the textile machinery, spares and accessory manufacturers to reduce the price that would benefit the textiles and clothing industry at large.
Shri Rajkumar stated that the industry is aggressively working towards high export targets and these measures will definitely supplement this labour intensive sector’s efforts to support inclusive and faster economic growth.