Industry sore, to meet today

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL. 25. The garment industry, which had been agitated over the imposition of a 16 per cent excise duty on branded garments, announced during the Finance Minister's speech on February 28, got a further shock today when Mr. Sinha announced its extension to non-branded garment too.

Expressing deep disappointment, Mr. Rahul Mehta, Convenor of the `Action Group for the Removal of Excise on the Garment Industry (AGREGI), ' formed by the industry immediately after the February 28 announcement, said the Government's move would have very adverse effect on the industry, which was already struggling to keep itself afloat in the wake of liberalised imports and the phased removal of the export quotas under a WTO agreement. It was, he said, also highly unfortunate for the economy as a whole, considering the fact that the industry was a major contributor to the economy and one of the largest employers, (it provides jobs to about 50 lakh workers), apart from being a major foreign exchange earner, accounting for about 20 per cent of the country's total export earnings.

The executive committee of the action group would meet in Mumbai tomorrow to take stock of the situation and chalk out the future action plan. Following the February 28 announcement, several export units had downed their shutters for about a week.

The textile industry also expressed disappointment over the announcement of the Finance Minister to offer an option to small textile processors to pay excise duty on chamber basis instead of going for ad-valorem structure as earlier proposed in the Budget.

Mr. Chand K. Anand, President, All India Garment Exports Common Cause Guild, said the decision was ``retrograde'' as it would only help those units which had been operating with obsolete equipment, when the need of the hour was to encourage the industry to go in for state-of-the-art machinery. The industry had been urging the Government to revert back to excise duty for all processors, on the ground that the ad-valorem duty would mean harassment.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : National
Previous : All garments in excise net
Next     : Rejection of nomination not a conspiracy: BJP