The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil), Chairman, Ujwal Lahoti has expressed his satisfaction over the 2 per cent hike on all exportable goods by the government and said, “The Mid Term Review of Foreign Trade is progressive and growth oriented. The government has recognized the urgent need to address the challenges being faced by the exporters on account of the roll out of the goods and services tax (GST) regime by focusing on reducing procedural burden.”
After the increment on MEIS rates for garments and made ups adding the latest increase in the mid-tern review of FTP has gone up to 6 per cent. The government also raised MEIS on cotton shopping bags to 5 per cent from the level of 3 per cent earlier.
Lahoti added with a satisfaction that enhanced MEIS rates will not only provide the much needed relief to exporters but also have a positive impact on the overall exports especially of textile products.
On the Contrary, Synthetic & Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC), Chairman, Narain Agarwal expressed his disappointment over the 2 per cent hike on all exportable goods by the government and said, “Although the mid-term review had addressed a host of the issues from GST to ‘Ease of Trading’ across borders, it has grossly overlooked the manmade fibre sector of the country which is reeling under GST due to asymmetrical input taxes and inverted duty structure, as well as facing fierce competition in overseas markets.”
Various representations to the Ministry of Textiles and Ministry of Commerce and Industry had been sent with a request to hike MEIS rates on all fabrics, made-ups and yarns of manmade fibres. Recently, the council had sent a list of 167 MMF items in these categories to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry requesting to increase the MEIS rates, he said.
The Council expects that the Government may shortly come out with a new revised MEIS rates as only seven fabrics and four made-up items are covered in the mid-term review which is a total disappointment for the manmade fibre textile segment of the country. According to the mid-term review statement to increase 2 per cent MEIS rates across the board for labour intensive MSME sectors leading to additional annual incentive of Rs 4,567 crore, Aggarwal said.
On the other hand, Cotton Textile Exporters has asked the government to include cotton yarn under MEIS and extend 3 per cent Interest Equalisation Scheme to merchant exporters. Exporters have also requested the government to cover fabrics under rebate of state levies (RoSL) and increase MEIS rates for fabrics to allow domestic procurements against Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) Authorizations and Advance Authorizations without payment of GST for export production.
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