IMG on textiles industry to be set up soon: Cabinet Secretary

23 Jan 2013 Evaluate

To look into the textile industry's problems like high customs duty on synthetic fabric and labour issues, an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) on textiles sector will be set up soon, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth said. He said 'we will have a continuous dialogue with the textiles industry and would like to have an inter-ministerial group on this (textiles) which will be set up soon'.

Inaugurating the three-day long India International Garment Fair (IIGF), which is showcasing apparel, accessories, home furnishings, jute, woolen items and handicraft, Ajit Kumar Seth said that IMG would take a holistic look at difficulties, which have been expressed by the industry and would recommend suggestions to address these issues.

Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) chief A Sakthivel said the Cabinet Secretary chaired a consultative meeting with the exporters and listened to the demands related to higher import duty on synthetic fabrics, other taxes and labour issues. Further, the Cabinet Secretary is expected to head the group and the officials from concerned ministries like commerce, finance, labour, customs representatives and related export promotion councils would also be members of the IMG. While, the IMG group, which is likely to be set up after the Union Budget next month, would meet every three months to review the sector's issues and progress.

Besides, the exporters are pressing for import of synthetic/blended fabrics at a lower duty of 5 percent. At present, the import duty on synthetic fabrics is about 21 percent. Further, most of the synthetic fabric is not available in India so mostly cotton garment is manufactured, which cater for summer. So, industry demanded fabric which is mostly synthetic for doing round the year business. Besides, the industry has also asked for allowing workers to do duty beyond 60 hours a week for which they would be given overtime payment.

During April-December of current fiscal, apparel exports declined about 8 percent to $9 billion compared to the same period last year due to lower demand from western markets like the US and Europe. In the last fiscal (FY12), the US and EU accounted for about 70 percent of the country's $14 billion garment exports.

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