New Textile policy offers little say industrialists

New Textile policy offers little say industrialists
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

SURAT, NOV 5: The new textile policy announced by the Government has not been received well by the Surat textile industry, where most of the State's units are located. Industrialists and associations contend that the new policy offers little for the Surat textile industry.

Texturising, weaving and processing units say that while they expected the Finance Ministry to announce a relief in levies, this has not been the case in the policy.

Federation of Indian Art Silk Weaving Industry President Arun Jariwala, said though the policy has covered issues like Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF), the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), the recommendations need to be implemented immediately.

On the garments sector, he said the new policy has made the necessary changes where exporters can make maximum use of the WTO provisions, but only time will tell whether there is actually an increase in garment exports. He was, however, skeptical about any benefit to Surat from the garments policy as there was no effective marketing system in place.

Other industrialists felt the textile policy should have clearly stated as to what recommendations had been made to the Finance Ministry as far as taxes on textiles were concerned.

Noted industrialist Girish Luthra said that while modernisation was necessary in the industry, prevailing labour laws needed to be amended to attract more foreign investment. Ridiculing the recommendation of adopting e-commerce in the textile industry, Luthra said that this was possible only after a majority of the buyers and sellers became e-savvy and that is a very far fetched idea. Stating his own example, Luthra said that although he launched his website three years ago, there have been only ten inquiries till date.

Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has welcomed the initiatives taken in the new textile policy announced by Union Textile Minister Kashiram Rana.

Chamber President Ratan Prakash Gupta in a statement here on Friday said the vision of the textile policy, which was to build a strong and vibrant domestic textile industry at par with the global textile scenario and achieve $ 50 billion export business by year 2010. The Chamber President, however, expressed doubt over the dereservation of the readymade garment sector from the small scale sector.

He said this would lead to entry of large textile players in the sector directly affecting the small scale units, who would not have the benefit of the economies of scale to meet the competition posed by the big players. Gupta stated the move would boost growth of medium and large textile units at the same time it would adversely affect the potential of direct employment to people in small scale units.

Gupta apprehended that dereservation of readymade garments sector might lead to closure of small scale units involved in the trade. He said it was unfortunate that long pending demands of the industry to remove the hank yarn obligation on the spinning sector was not fulfilled in the new policy. Gupta also noted that no concrete steps were announced for sick textile units under the National Textile Corproation.