Southern India Mills Association (SIMA) has thanked the Centre for acting on the inputs given by the association for the different textile products marginally increasing the duty drawback rates and value caps in general.

The Central government has revised all industry rates (AIRs) of duty drawback in October 31, which comes into force on November 15 and these AIRs have taken into account all the Central levies and enables exporters to get the refund of taxes so as to remain competitive in the global market, SIMA chairman M Senthilkumar said in a press release here.

Though the GST is likely to be implemented in 2017, the Duty Drawback Committee headed by Dr Saumitra Chaudhuri made an effort to get inputs from the industry and from exporters to arrive at the reasonable drawback rates for all the export goods. Senthilkumar thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitely and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitaraman, and Chaudhari for considering the inputs given by the association.

He also thanked Union Minister for Textiles Smriti Irani for convincing the Ministry of Commerce and enabling fixation of reasonable drawback rate for all products.

The Indian textiles and clothing sector which has been under stress due to global competition and continuous drop in exports will now be in a position to improve its exports to a certain extent with the enhanced benefits and the special garment export package already announced by the government.