Coimbatore : The Cotton Textile Exports Promotion Council of India (Texprocil) has expressed deep concern about the declining exports of cotton yarn from the country

Exports of Cotton Yarn from India in the first quarter of April-June 2019 have fallen by a steep 33 per cent from 338 Million Kgs for the period April-June 2018 to 226 Million (mn) Kgs in April–June 2019, Texprocil Chairman, K V Srinivasan said..

The month-on-month decline from 90 Mn Kgs in April 2019 to 77 Mn Kgs in May to 59 Mn Kgs in June, is a matter of deep concern and the level of 59 Mn. Kgs is the lowest monthly export in the last five years, he said in a statement today.

The steep fall has been caused by a variety of reasons, including, decline in exports to leading export markets like China, Bangladesh, South Korea and the duty free access given for import of cotton yarn by China to countries like Pakistan and Vietnam from April 1 this year, Srinivasan claimed.

Considering the large scale investment in the spinning sector and sluggish demand in the domestic markets, exports are the only avenue to ensure uninterrupted production and capacity utilisation, he said.

Even though cotton yarn is a value added product, it has been excluded from the export benefits like interest subvention, Merchandise Export of India Scheme and the Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies schemes (ROSCTL).

In view of this, Srinivasan appealed to the Government to include cotton yarn in the interest subvention scheme and also rebate the embedded taxe like Agricultural Cess, Mandi Tax, Power and Fuel Surcharge which were incurred in the production process.

The ROSCTL Scheme which rebates these levies should be extended to cotton yarn sector at the earliest, he said.

Stating that this will ensure that only products are exported and not taxes, he said that this will also provide the much needed impetus in the context of rising cotton prices and appreciating Rupee which are eroding competitiveness.

In case the current trends of declining exports continue in the next quarter, it will lead to closure of several spinning units in the near future, resulting in layoffs.even as the cotton yarn sector has been one of the pillars of the Indian textile industry and is also highly modernised and technology driven and also provides sustainable income to farmers,Srinivasan said