FW
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association have demanded reduced corporate tax at 10 per cent from the proposed 15 per cent and withdrawal of the source tax for the next three years.
Every year, the government increases corporate tax and source tax in the RMG sector and BGMEA brings it down through discussion with high ups of the government.
Finance minister AMA Muhith in his national budget speech proposed to increase corporate tax rate for manufacturers and exporters of readymade garments to 15 per cent from existing 12 per cent. The finance minister also proposed tax rate for green building certificate holding apparel companies at 12 per cent from existing 10 per cent.
The RMG sector earned 83 per cent of total foreign currency and was the only one sector generating employment in the country. Muhith demanded waiver from submitting value added tax returns to the VAT office.
BGMEA president Md Siddiqur Rahman , however, termed the proposed budget business-friendly saying that it would create employment in the country. Although the BGMEA president demanded corporate tax cut and weaver from source tax.
According to Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) currently 31 denim manufacturing mills are producing 437.877 million yards of fabrics annually, which could hardly meet half the demand for denim fabrics. More denim factories are needed to meet the growing demand.
But despite different difficulties, Bangladesh has become a major hub for sourcing trendy denim products for international retailers, mainly due to its competitive pricing. Brands like Charles Voegele, G-Star, Jack and Jones, s.Oliver, River Island, H&M, C&A, PVH and Gap, Uniqlo, Tesco, Walmart, Levi’s, Diesel, Wrangler, and Hugo Boss have turned to the country in the last couple of years for denim imports.
In Europe, Bangladesh holds 27 per cent market share of denim export, which is 14.20 per cent on the US market.
According to Eurostar, statistics directorate of the European Commission, Bangladesh exported denim products worth of 1.30 billion pounds sterling in 2017, a 0.54 per cent increase from 2016’s 1.29 billion pounds.
On the other hand, data available from the Office of Textiles and Apparel (Otexa) in the US show Bangladesh earned US$507.92 million, a 9.55 per percent growth exporting denim products to the US market in 2017.
To ensure Rwandan exporters are not significantly affected by the anticipated suspension of duty-free access to the US market under the AGOA framework, government has decided to take over the resultant tax obligations.
This follows the announcement of American government to suspend the application of duty-free treatment to all African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)-eligible goods in the apparel sector for Rwanda.
The suspension would take effect in 60 days (from March 31) in case Rwanda maintains its policy on used clothes, commonly known as Cagua.
However, the Government is setting up an adjustment facility to pay taxes imposed on the exporters for the next one year to ensure minimal disruption to the businesses.
The overall intention is to identify alternative markets such as Europe, Asia and the African continent that can allow duty free access.
Trident is the flagship company of the $1 billion Indian business conglomerate and global player, Trident Group. The company has dynamically evolved from being a solitary yarn and paper manufacturer to one of the largest, state-of-the-art and integrated home textile manufacturers globally.
Presently, Trident has an installed capacity of 5.5 lakhs spindles and 6,464 rotors with a capacity to produce 90,000 tpa of cotton, compact and blended yarn. The division also has dyed-yarn capacity of 6,825 tpa. While nearly 35 per cent of the produce is consumed by the bath and bed linen units, rest is sold in the domestic and international markets. The manufacturing units are equipped with state-of-the-art technology.
The company’s vertically integrated operation right from yarn to bed and bath linen is characterised by the use of the SAP ECC6 system, thereby ensuring flawless material tracking throughout the value chain. This further safeguards the traceability and authenticity of all products.
Incorporated in 1990 and headquartered in Ludhiana, over the years, Trident has successfully established its presence in the bath linen segment. Trident has also received several accolades from its patrons in recognition of its delivering high quality standards and for its customer-centric approach. With a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 30 per cent, Trident has established itself as one of the fastest growing groups in India.
German researchers based at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology in Stuttgart are exploring ways of using chitosan, derived from a component of insect skin called chitin, to replace toxic chemicals in the production of textiles.
Chitin has two potential applications in the textile industry. First, it can be used to protect textiles from breaking in the weaving process. It can be used to produce textiles with specific properties such as water resistance.
The chitosan molecule can be modified to give any fabric different properties. For example, water-resistant molecules can be added to chitosan to make textiles water-repellent.
Additionally, coating fabrics with chitosan can give them antibacterial properties. Furthermore, chitin could provide a more sustainable alternative to compounds that are currently used in the textile industry, as insects are increasingly utilized as a source of protein in the animal feed industry.
Although technical innovations in the textile sector are increasing production efficiency besides lowering costs, they are also resulting in a loss of hundreds of jobs due to increase in mechanisation of production.
Therefore the industry needs to adopt a more human-centric, globally conscious approach to business. New technologies should be evaluated with human costs in mind – measured in terms of lost incomes, shattered livelihoods, and uprooted families.
Technology companies must collaborate with apparel manufacturers to manage future platforms. For instance, with the evolution of traditional jobs, technology servicing jobs will become more important.
It is therefore it is important that workers in the industry learn everything right from cal liberation of sewing machines to that of apparel printers and packaging systems.
Secondly, to ease the transition from manual to modern manufacturing, businesses and governments must introduce tech literacy to their employees. They should conduct seminars and workshops to update the skills of their employees.
Most importantly, governments should advocate for trade agreements that cushion the impact when manufacturing jobs are lost, while laying the groundwork for the transition to more tech-heavy industries.
Powerloom Development and Export Promotion Council (PDEXCIL) has demanded a fair mechanism for safeguarding that yarn prices steady and stay constant over a period of time to guarantee that the micro and small/medium entrepreneurs in the powerloom industry don’t suffer due to frequent fluctuation in the yarn prices.
The production cost of fabric is mainly dependent on the yarn prices, which is the main raw material for conversion to fabrics.
However, due to sluggish demand of fabrics in domestic market as well as decline in exports, manufacturers are unable to absorb the burden of such price rise. This has reduced their profit margin and they find it difficult even to achieve a breakeven.
Kenyan government has recently announced that the cotton sector will be a key area of focus for growth in the coming months.
Increasing revenues from around US$35 million to US$20 billion, the introduction of biotechnologies and the creation of thousands of new jobs were among the main talking points of a statement made at a cotton stakeholder meeting in Nairobi.
Charles Waturu, director of the Horticulture Research Institute at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, stated that with the use of hybrids there has been plans to introduce the development of cotton production.
Waturu also demanded that this inventiveness could see 50,000 workers trained for employment within the agricultural sector and 500,000 succeeding jobs could be created in the clothing sector.
A provisional commercialisation of Bt cotton trials road map and have identified the nine sites for National Performance Trials was agreed in a recent appointed task force.
Kenya's cotton has been low in competition to the more efficient producers in India, China, Bangladesh and Vietnam, says, Dickson Kibata, technical advisor on fiber crops at Kenya’s Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA).
According to Kibata at present compared to a market demand of around 25,000 tonnes there are around 30,000 Kenyan farmers involved in cotton growing, producing 4,000 tonnes and so suggesting an increase in investment will be important to enable capacity building technologies to be implemented.
Gerber recently demonstrated on-demand manufacturing applications that included its Digital Solutions, integrating data from design to finished products.
These solutions enable brands and manufacturers to respond to demand versus producing to supply. The approach eliminates costly inventory and re-defines just-in-time manufacturing, so production adjusts as demands fluctuate – allowing products to be produced more efficiently and sold at full retail price without heavy discounting.
Gerber is leveraging YuniquePLM and the AccuMark Platform, digital printing technologies from industry leaders, Gerber’s Z1 single-ply cutter with ContourVision automated scan-to-cut system and both robotic and lean loop sewing operations.
These solutions also integrate software and smart machines, allowing companies to automate their entire process and streamline data and workflow necessary to provide insight, maximise throughput, minimise errors and reduce labour costs to be competitive in mass production environments.
The Indian government has objected to US decision of reviewing the eligibility of its $5.6 billion worth of exports that get low or zero duty benefit in the US.
The US had announced in April that it would review preferential or duty-free access to its market for India’s exports including mechanical and electrical machinery, organic and inorganic chemicals, plastics and vegetables as part of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) scheme.
The review will impact almost 3,500 Indian products being exported to the US. The US wants to review India’s eligibility based on petitions filed by its dairy and medical device industries given Indian trade barriers affecting US exports in those sectors.
The US had changed the qualifications norms for its GSP programme last year. Now, a beneficiary country must meet 15 eligibility criteria established by the Congress, including equitable and reasonable market access.
Global norms governing the scheme state that developed countries should not expect developing countries to make matching offers in return for granting trade concessions.
India has cited this non-discrimination, non-reciprocity clause of the programme to argue its case.
