With their demand for removal of duty on import of cotton met by the Indian government temporarily till September 30, the textile industry is now mulling to press other demands before the government. There are indications that the industry organisations may raise the demand to remove the import duty permanently to solve the issue of cotton shortage.
Apart from this, the industry is also likely to ask for suspension of future trading in cotton, to check hoarding of the natural fibre.
A source from the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) told Fibre2Fashion that the industry needs permanent solution by removing import duty forever. The government has removed duty till September 30, 2022. But, with the arrival of the new crop in October, the import duty will be levied again, which will increase the landed cost of imported cotton by 11 percent, making imports unviable for the Indian.
Industry sources said that textile workers were badly affected due to the delay in removal of import duty as many garment units, powerlooms and other units were forced to cut production due to the steep rise in price of cotton.
In its argument against imposing import duty on cotton, the industry says that Indian exporters are losing market to other Asian countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Pakistan because of the duty. Many of these countries enjoy duty-free access to the European market.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk
