Reacting to the Budget proposals, Mr. P. Kasiviswanathan, Head of Indian Operations of Picanol, said: “We welcome the decision of the Government to completely remove customs duty on weaving machines. When you look back, in 2011-12 the Government granted 10 per cent capital subsidy for investment on new weaving machines. Now, in the recent Budget, the customs duty of 5 per cent has been completely removed. This shows the Government’s firm belief that we must concentrate on upgradation of technology in weaving as there are enormous shuttle looms which are to be modernized to shuttleless looms”.
He said this also means that even without export obligation, customers can import weaving machines duty free. In order to avoid dumping of second-hand weaving machines the Government has imposed 7.5 per cent duty on such machines, which implies further encouragement for new shuttleless loom investment.
All this will create new opportunities for domestic fabric manufacturers to go for technological upgradation by importing the latest technology.