Relieving The Burden

Samir Alam discusses the implications of the hike in basic customs duty for the MMF sector by picking out a rationale in support of the same.

 

The textile and apparel industry breathed a sigh of relief recently when the central government decided to increase the basic customs duty on the import of various textile goods from other nations. The initial announcement was made in late October, with revisions and details emerging over the next few weeks. The notification from the revenue department specified the increase for various product segments across fabrics and other ‘made-ups’ manufactured using manmade fibres (MMFs), such as synthetic woven fabrics of various qualities, other woven fabrics, synthetic filament fabric, artificial filament fabric, and artificial woven fabrics. All these types come under the Harmonised System (HS) code of products, and will now face increased import duty rates from five per cent to 20 per cent for fabrics, and from 10 per cent to 25 per cent for ‘made-ups’. There was also mention of an increased import duty on cotton fabrics from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.