Union Budget 2023-24 aims at strong and stable economic growth – SIMA
Coimbatore 1st February 2023
Ravi Sam, Chairman, SIMA
In a Press Release issued here today, Mr.Ravi Sam, Chairman, The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has appreciated the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Hon’ble Finance Minister and Hon’ble Textile Minister for giving thrust for inclusive growth, infrastructure and investment green growth, skill development, etc., that would greatly help the highly labour, power and capital intensive textile industry. SIMA Chairman has thanked the Government for considering the proposal submitted by the Association and announcing a Scheme for increasing the production of Extra Long Staple Cotton in the country under Cluster Development Initiative through PPP mode. Mr. Ravi Sam has said that the Association can match with the international Extra Long Staple cotton varieties and would take initiatives to increase the production under the said scheme. He has said that after introduction of Bt technology only for Long Staple Cotton, the industry started facing shortage of ELS cotton. He has added that the industry’s requirement of ELS cotton is around 20 lakh bales while the country produces only 5 lakh bales and heavily depends on imports of superior quality ELS cotton. He has said that this is an initiative towards the Aatmanirbar Bharat benefit for the whole textile value chain including the cotton farmers.
SIMA Chief has thanked the Government for allocating Rs.9,000 crores for ECLGS for MSMEs, as the textile industry would be the major beneficiary out of the scheme since more than 80% of the textile units come under the MSME category. He has appreciated the Government for the increased allocation of Rs.900 crores when compared to Rs.650 crores made last year for the ATUF Scheme, which would benefit the industry.
He has also appreciated the Government for introducing separate HS codes for different staple length of cotton including Extra Long Staple cotton, when imported from other countries. While appreciating various features of Union Budget 2023-24, Mr.Ravi Sam has said that the Government could have avoided the increase in the Basic Customs Duty on textile machinery from 5% to 7.5% as the country is not even producing 20% of the machinery requirement. He has said that this will have some impact on the global competitiveness and also the recently announced Production Linked Incentive Scheme and PM MITRA Scheme in the absence of Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme which was in vogue from 1st April 1999 to 31st March 2022.
SIMA believes that the NDA Government led by the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, has been taking several path breaking and proactive policy initiatives to make India as one of the strongest top economies in the world. The country could achieve the envisaged results despite around two years of lockdown challenges posed by COVID-19 and prolonged Ukraine-Russia war that have impacted most of the countries in the world. The Government has been very aggressive in addressing the structural and fundamental issues that can yield sustainable growth apart from addressing short term and medium-term issues. The Indian textiles and clothing industry, the second largest employment provider next only to agriculture, has been given major thrust in almost all the policies and majority of the demands have already been met by the Government. Though unforeseen demand recession has temporarily stalled the performance of the textile industry, especially on the export front, taking advantage of various policy initiatives the industry, itself is gearing up to revive from the crisis and become vibrant soon.
SIMA lauds Hon’ble Textile Minister for extending the period of implementation of Viscose Staple Fibre Quality Control Order
Earlier, in a press release of 28.1.2023, SIMA had to convey the following:
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has been entrusted with the task of product standardization by formulating standards for various products including textiles and clothing products. Currently, over 1,400 standards are available for the textile industry, while BIS is in the process of revising the existing standards in consultation with the stakeholders and releasing the new draft standards for numerous products seeking comments. The Ministry of Textiles has taken a decision to issue the Quality Control Order (QCO) for all the textiles and clothing products to protect the interests of the consumers and also curb low quality imports and thereby protect the interests of the indigenous textiles and clothing product manufacturers. The Ministry of Textiles is also in the process of issuing more than 100 QCOs for technical textiles products and several QCOs have been issued for MMF textiles especially fibres and yarns including the polyester staple fibre and viscose staple fibre.
The Ministry of Textiles issued Quality Control Order for the Viscose Staple Fibre vide its notification S.O.6143(E) dated 29th December 2022 to be implemented from 29th January 2023, giving a time limit of 30 days for obtaining BIS quality certification for the manufacturer of VSF from any country to export to India. Normally, it takes three to six months for BIS to process the application, make inspections to the concerned country and issue the BIS certification. The thirty days’ time limit has caused difficulties for all the users of imported VSF in the country resulting in panic situation. Hence, The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has represented to extend the time limit for VSF Quality Control Order (VSF QCO) so as to enable the BIS to complete the formalities and issue the certification.
In a Press Release issued here today, Mr.Ravi Sam, Chairman, SIMA, has thanked the Hon’ble Minister of Textiles, Shri.Piyush Goyal for convening the stakeholders meeting of VSF on 27th January 2023, deliberating the need for extension of time limit for VSF QCO and the practical difficulties faced by the VSF value chain. He has thanked the Hon’ble Minister for acceding to the request of the industry and extending the period by another 60 days and also directing the BIS to expedite the processing formalities, completing industry visits in a time bound manner and issue the BIS certification to the manufacturers located in different countries, who supply Viscose Staple Fibre to India.
SIMA Chairman has stated that India is importing Viscose Rayon Staple Fibre from over 20 countries including Indonesia, Austria, Hongkong, Singapore, China, Thailand, UK, Sri Lanka, Greece and Germany. The industry had imported 60.76 million kgs during April 2021 to March 2022 and 77.07 million kgs during April to November 2022. Mr.Ravi Sam has pointed out that adequate time is required for BIS and the VSF manufacturing companies in different countries to complete the formalities and issue the BIS certification.
Mr. Ravi Sam has stated that several hundreds of VSF textiles and clothing manufacturers in the country though predominantly use indigenous VSF fibre, they heavily depend on certain specified VSF fibres to meet the requirements of nominated business. He has said that QCO time extension has enabled these manufacturers to get the imports without any difficulties that might land the country till March. SIMA Chief has advised all the suppliers and manufacturers to take necessary steps and process the BIS applications on a fast track and obtain the certificates at the earliest.
