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The Textile Magazine
OctoBER 2011
dium enterprises. In order to extend
the coverage of products under the
Focus Product Scheme (FPS), he
decided to include 130 new items,
covering 10 product sectors, spe-
cifcally including chemicals, phar-
maceuticals, textiles, handicrafts,
engineering and electronics sector
which will get 2% duty credit un-
der the scheme. Chemicals such as
soda ash, textile items like polyes-
ter yarn, woven cotton fabric denim,
unbleached or bleached cotton fab-
rics, knitted and dyed cotton fabrics
are covered under the scheme.
The following are the measures
announced by the Minister for the
textiles sector:
Support to apparel sec-
tor
Exports of items under Chapters
61 and 62 have shown a declining
trend during 2010-11 compared to
2009-10. The total exports to the
US under Chapters 61 and 62 dur-
ing 1.4.2010 to 30.09.2010 were Rs.
6129.69 crore. The exports during
1.4.2011 to 30.09.2011 declined to
Rs. 3897.29 crore. Similarly the total
exports to EU under Chapter 61 and
62 during 1.4.2010 to 30.09.2010
were Rs. 10365.01 crore. The ex-
ports during 1.4.2011 to 30.09.2011
declined to Rs. 7869.02 crore. This
sector has high potential to achieve
higher level of exports and gener-
ate great employment opportunities.
The US and EU are also our major
markets and these two countries are
having their own myriad problems
at present.
The chapters 61 and chapter 62
items were granted duty credit un-
der MLFPS for export to the US till
30.9.2010 and for exports to EU up
to 31.3.2011. However, at present
the readymade garments are not
covered under the FPS/MLFPS. It
has been decided to extend MLFPS
for exports to the US and EU under
chapter 61 and 62.
The scheme would cover all the
items covered under chapter 61 and
62. The duty credit would be availa-
ble to exports made during 1.4.2011
to 31.3.2012 @ 2 % of FOB value
of exports.
Focus Product Scheme
The list of items under FPS has
been expanded to include 130 addi-
tional items. These items are mainly
in the sectors of chemical/pharma-
ceuticals, textiles, handicrafts, engi-
neering and electronics sector.
Textile items like polyester tex-
tured yarn, fully drawn yarn of
polyester, viscose rayon type yarn,
polyester chips, woven cotton fab-
rics denim 85% cotton over 200G/
M2, unbleached or bleached cotton
fabrics, dyed cotton fabrics knitted
or crocheted have been included un-
der the scheme.
The items covered under FPS are
entitled to get duty credit scrip @
2% of FOB value of exports.
‘Niryat Bandhu’
The Government is devising a
novel ‘Niryat Bandhu’ scheme for
mentoring frst generation entrepre-
neurs. The offcer (Niryat Bandhu)
would function in the ‘Mentoring’
arena and would be a ‘Handholding’
experiment for the Young Turks in
International Business enterprises.
Under the scheme, offcers of
DGFT will be investing time and
knowledge primarily to mentor the
interested individuals who want to
conduct the business in a legal way.
Over time, it would be expected to
develop a class of businessmen who
carry out the international business
in an ethical manner.
Procedural simplifcation
The application of IEC has be-
come online with effect from Janu-
ary 1, 2011. This reduces the inter-
face of exporters with the regional
authorities of DGFT. An effort is
also on to update the IEC database
containing more than 7.6 lakhs IEC.
All the IEC holders are being urged
to cooperate in this effort and update
their details on-line. This exercise
would be completed by 31.3.2012.
DGFT has also become India’s
frst digital signature enabled de-
partment in Government of In-
dia, which has introduced a higher
level of Encrypted 2048 bit Digital
Signature. Digital certifcate pro-
vides a high level of security for
online communication such that
only intended recipient can read it.
It provides authentication, privacy,
non-repudiation and Integrity in the
virtual world.
Mr. Sharma also observed: “One
of the key pillars of our new ap-
proach has been a strong agenda of
market diversifcation, recognizing
the risks associated with concentrat-
ing on our traditional destinations or
waiting for them to rebound to pre-
recession levels. We added 41 new
markets for incentives in Africa,
Latin America, Oceania and Cen-
tral Asia. Labour intensive indus-
try received our special attention as
we acknowledged the need of pro-
tecting the interests of millions of
people engaged in textiles, leather,
gems and jewellery with fuctuating
global demand”.
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