The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Centre urged to abolish import duty on man-made fibres

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Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Centre urged to abolish import duty on man-made fibres

R Vimal Kumar

Tirupur: The Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) has urged the Central Government to abolish the import duty on man-made fibres to help knitwear manufacturers diversify from cotton-based products to apparels made of synthetics.

“This is essential for the knitwear manufacturers in the country, who are predominantly exporting cotton-based products that cater to only one-third of the global consumption, to concentrate more on synthetic apparels,” TEA president A Sakthivel told The Hindu.

Market Development Fund

In a recent representation to the Union Ministry of Textiles, the TEA has sought the Government intervention to help the entrepreneurs obtain synthetic fibres/yarn/fabric at competitive rates. “The move will help the manufacturers to produce more synthetic garments which, in turn, will significantly augment the exports from the country,” he said.

To support subsequent exports of synthetic garment exports, the TEA suggested creation of a Market Development Fund (MDF).

“Our recommendation is that an incentive at five percent of the Free-on–Board (FoB) value of garments should be given to the exporters from the MDF corpus, so that the prices of end products become competitive enough to penetrate niche markets,” Mr. Sakthivel said. The MDF, according to knitwear exporters, has to be retained till synthetic garment exports from the country seize a good market globally.

Knit Fair

Mr. Sakthivel said that the 29th edition of India Knit Fair, scheduled to commence in Tirupur on October 7, would be used as platform for enabling the knitwear manufacturers in the country to diversify more into synthetic garments and winter wears.

“Owing to our over dependency on cotton-based apparels, range of supply have been mostly confined to summer wears alone which needed to be changed with the promotion of man-made fibres,” he said.

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