Textile industry experts, who waited for the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, to announce some relief for the "labour-intensive" sector, were rather disappointed when he "sympathised but made no specific announcement to bail out the ailing industry".
"We have been overlooked. We have nothing to say," said the Chairman of the Southern India Mills Association, Dr K.V. Srinivasan.
The industry expected the Minister to announce some relief measures in the aftermath of the sudden appreciation of the rupee against the US dollar, high bank interest and rising cotton prices.
The association had sought a reduction in the import duty of cotton from the existing 10 to five per cent, particularly because of the severe shortage in the availability of the short staple fibre, exemption from the special counterveiling duty on cotton, withdrawal of one per cent drawback extended for cotton export, refund of local levies, reduction of customs duty and excise duty on manmade staple fibre from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent, withdrawal of customs duty on furnace oil imports for captive consumption, reduction in mandatory excise duty etc, to compete with countries such as China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Taiwan.
Moratorium
The industry had also sought a one-year moratorium for repayment of loans and interest to prevent a good number of units becoming NPA.
"The raw material price has risen, the units are facing acute power and labour shortage and currency appreciation have added to our woes. The Ministry of Textiles did a lot of homework and suggested some proposals.
"We were expecting some financial relief, but nothing has come," he said.
The Union Budget had also not considered the recommendations made by the different Work Groups of Tex Summit 2007, he added.
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