With an objective to boost domestic manufacturing and create employment opportunities, the government has doubled import duty on as many as 328 textile products. Increase customs duty on 328 tariff lines of textile products from the existing rate of 10% to 20% under Section 159 of the Customs Act, 1962. The government hiked basic customs duties on items such as carpets, woollen items and ski suits, dressing gowns, druggets, ensemble of silk and artificial fibre, carpets and other textile floorings, and shawls.
The move will promote domestic manufacturing of these products in the country as part of the Make in India initiative. It is expecting that increase in duties will give an edge to domestic manufacturers as imported products are currently cheaper. Increase in manufacturing activity will help create jobs in the sector, which employs about 10.5 crore people.
In the month of July 2018, the government had doubled import duty on over 50 textile products -- including jackets, suits and carpets -- to 20%, a move that is aimed at promoting domestic manufacturing. Besides, imports of textile yarn, fabric, made-up articles grew by 8.58% to $168.64 million in June. Though, exports of cotton yarn/fabrics/made-ups, handloom products grew by 24% to $986.2 million. Man-made yarn/fabrics/made-ups exports grew 8.45% to $403.4 million, while exports of all textile ready made garments dipped by 12.3% to $13.5 billion.