The Union Finance Ministry on Thursday decided to extend the concessional customs duty on textile machineries till 2025.
The move comes after Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) and Federation of Gujarat Weavers Association, and other textile industry bodies made representations to Union Textile Minister Piyush Goyal and the Union Finance Ministry officials on March 13 requesting them to extend the concessional customs duty on the import of textile machinery.
The concessional customs duty for key textile machinaries were to expire on March 31, 2023 after which 8.25 per cent customs duty were to be charged on these machinaries.
However, the Union Finance Ministry, through a notification, extended the validity of the concessional customs duty till March 2025.
Welcoming the move, SGCCI president Himanshu Bodwala said, “We are very much satisfied with the decision… The move will help large number of investments in the textile industry and and the exports of the textile industry to reach the exports target of 250 billion US dollars by 2030.
Explaining the rise number of machinaries used by weaving industry in Surat over the years, Pandesara Weavers Cooperative Society Limited president Ashish Gujarati said, “In 2002, there were 10,000 high-speed weaving machines in Surat. Today Surat has over 80,000 waterjet weaving machines, 30,000 rapier with jacquard machines and 10,000 airjet and projectile machines. The total number of high-speed machines in India are 2,50,000 machines. Out of the total high-speed machines in India around 50 per cent are in Surat.”
In their representation to the Goyal, the SGCCI had stated that the Indian textile industry is fragmented and 97 per cent of the production of downstream industry is being done by the MSME s which are decentralised across India. The weaving and knitting sectors produce 97 per cent of the fabrics in India in a decentralised manner.
Presently the domestic market of textile industry is around 100 billion US dollars and exports are of 44 billion US dollars.
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