Cotton Textile Export Grows by 26 Percent During April to September 2018

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India: Ms.Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Textile Minister, stated that India held a special place in Global Textile Trade as the 2nd largest textile exporter in the world. Today, cotton yarn & fabric exports account for over 23% of India’s total textiles and apparel exports.

Ms.Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Textile Minister, stated that India held a special place in Global Textile Trade as the 2nd largest textile exporter in the world. Today, cotton yarn & fabric exports account for over 23% of India’s total textiles and apparel exports. She emphasized that The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL) should also look at propagating the growth in the MSME sector, as a third of its members fall under the MSME category. This has become more relevant in the light of the announcement made by the Prime Minister on 2nd November 2018 for the MSME sector. She further stated that it was for the first time that banking institutions were directed to give in principle approvals to loans in 59 minutes. She urged the industry to take the benefit of ATUF scheme, as provided under the special package of Rs. 6,000 crore for the made-ups and garments sector. She assured that the Ministry of Textiles would provide all types of support to the cotton textile sector in increasing exports.

She addressed the gathering as the Chief Guest of TEXPROCIL Export Awards 2017 – 2018 in a glittering function held on 3rd November, 2018 at Mumbai.

The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL) presented 56 awards in 32 categories for the best export performance during 2017-2018. Out of the 36 companies receiving the awards in various categories, 7 companies received the prestigious export award for the first time. Another novel feature of this year’s awards was the introduction of the award for the highest employment generated during fiscal 2017-18, including women employment.

Shri Ujwal Lahoti, Chairman of the TEXPROCIL stated that the ongoing trade war between the US and China would possibly open up new opportunities for the cotton textile exports from India and we should be ready to explore them. The Government was also in the process of putting in place alternate schemes to promote exports which would improve the competitiveness of the products. These alternate schemes were expected to be WTO compatible. The alternate scheme would replace earlier schemes like MEIS etc. and it was believed that the level of support would not in anyways be lowered.

TEXPROCIL has proposed to include cotton yarn under the MEIS. The Cotton yarn is a value-added product with a lot of value addition taking place within the country. The MEIS for fabrics also needed to be increased from 2% to 4%. TEXPROCIL would also request the Government to include Cotton yarn and fabrics under the ROSL scheme as these products also face the incidence of state levies as in the case of Made ups and Garments. The ROSL scheme currently covered only state levies. However, there are also central levies, the burden of which the exporters have to bear. To make exports competitive, these central levies also needed to be refunded under a new scheme.

In the current year (April to September 2018), exports of textiles and clothing have declined by 3% with exports of readymade garments registering a steep decline of 16%. However, in this backdrop, it is heartening to note that exports of cotton textiles have grown by 26.8% in 2018-19 (April to September 2018). During this period, exports of cotton textiles (raw cotton, yarn, fabrics, and made-ups) touched US$ 6235 million as compared to US$ 4917 million in 2017-18.

While proposing Vote of Thanks, Dr. K.V. Srinivasan, Vice Chairman - TEXPROCIL, stated that although many issues related with the sector have been addressed, there are still a few, that require attention and intervention of the Government.

Shri Ujwal Lahoti welcomed the package for the MSME sector. Interest subvention on pre-shipment and post-shipment finance for exports by MSMEs has been increased from 3% to 5%. These measures would provide much-needed support and encouragement to the MSME sector, which contributed significantly to the textiles exports. Under the package, GST - registered MSMEs would get 2% interest rebate on incremental loan up to Rs. 1 crore.

(Business Wire India)