MUMBAI, July 8: The Centre has decided to set right the discrimination between imported and domestic textiles by mandatorily stamping fibre content, name of the manufacturer and date of manufacture on imported fabrics and yarns. The textiles ministry will issue a notification next week.The final decision, however, on stamping of wholesale price details on imported and domestic fabrics will be taken after arriving at a consensus, says a ministry official.

The move will have a positive effect on the prospects of domestic manufacturers, who come under the purview of stamping rules.

The decision comes as a major victory for apex bodies like the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), which have been pressing for the stamping of quality details on imported fabric and yarn.

The stamping issue spawned a furious debate between CII and Ficci last month. Ficci had objected to a set of CII recommendations on the textiles industry. One of these was the need for a legislation, which would make stamping of fibre content and wholesale price on every metre of fabric mandatory. Ficci said the recommendations were "unrealistic and against the interests of the consumers and producers". The body argued that every fabric has to undertake three statutory stampings, fibre content, name of the manufacturer and date of manufacture, which were already being complied with.

However, both the associations were in favour of stamping of fibre content and prices on imported fabrics.

Industry observers say that the stamping of quality factors on imported fabrics will protect the interests of the domestic industry, facilitating a level-playing field.

During 1996, India exported 404.5 kg of cotton yarn valued at Rs 4.776 crore, representing a 66 per cent growth in volume and 53 per cent in value over last year.

The average price realisation for cotton fabrics was Rs 20.98 per square metre in January-May 1997. For cotton yarn, the average price decreased from Rs 122.57 per kg to Rs 116.24 during the period.

The committee of secrtaries is yet to approve the modernisation fund for the textiles industry and the approval is expected soon. In his budget speech, finance minister P Chidambaram had announced the launching of a modernisation fund for the textiles sector.

COMMENT :

fibre industry stands to gain

The domestic fibre industry will benefit from the decision. The biggest spinoff will be identifying products that are being dumped into the country. Under-invoiced imports often go scot-free as they were being done under different product names. With the percentage of fibre content being printed on the consignment, the industry will have a better picture of imports. This will help in speedy imposition of anti-dumping duties on defaulting parties. Stamping will also help consumers as they will be able to identify the products they are buying.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.