Sanjay K Jain, Chairman, CITI has welcomed the decision to enhance export incentives for garment and made ups sectors under the Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS) and Rebate of State Levies (RoSL) to check the fall in export of textile products.

The Ministry of Commerce has enhanced export incentives from 2 to 4 per cent for the garment and made up sectors under MEIS; also, under RoSL, the government has increased the refund of state levies on the average of 0.5 per cent. Jain says CITI had highlighted the issue of declining textile exports in its recent representations to the Ministry of Textiles, Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Finance and requested the government to take immediate steps to support the textile sector by increasing export incentives under MEIS, Drawback and RoSL.

He further states textile industry issues are not yet resolved and it needs further support from the government to support the entire value chain — as no relief was provided to the yarn and fabric sector — to ensure holistic growth of the textile industry. Even in garments and made ups, the overall incentives and refund of duties on exports is still about 3 per cent less than pre GST levels. The Indian cotton yarn sector is seriously affected by the lower demand from domestic and international markets, besides, fabric sector, which is also the weakest link of the value chain, is also taxed by the high Central and state levies.

The country’s cotton yarn exports this year till August is 29 per cent lower than last year. Jain feels the government should immediately address unresolved issues of the textile sector to make the sector globally competitive. The sensitiveness of the government to the industry’s problems is encouraging and gives them the confidence to grow strongly by enhancing capacities and making inroads in various international markets.