Spinners seek duty-free raw material import

Mumbai: The proposal to include manmade fibres and filament yarns, that are raw material for certain domestic industries, in the negative list of several trade agreements may have a devastating impact on the manmade textile industry, the Indian Spinners' Association (ISA) has warned.

In a representation to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, the President of the association, Mr V.K. Ladia, drew the attention of the Union Government to the fact that while manmade fibres and filament yarns are produced by giant units (of which some are world leaders in their line of manufacture), users of filament yarn are small-scale units in the decentralised sector and consumers of manmade fibres are spinning mills. Also, users of yarn spun from manmade fibres are mostly small power-loom factories in the decentralised sector.

Global scale units


Pointing out the irony in the Government proposal to support global scale units at the cost of small decentralised units in the country, ISA warned that such a discriminatory policy would hurt the domestic industry and employment.

It has demanded that import duties on manmade fibres and filament yarns be abolished forthwith and only some items of manmade yarns and fabrics be included in the Negative and Sensitive Lists, where the domestic manmade textile industry is not in a position to bear international competition and requires tariff protection.