The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) today expressed its hopes that the government would, in the upcoming budget, remove the 5 percent import duty, special additional duty, and anti-dumping duty levied on the man-made fibre (MMF) textiles and clothing segment.

The Indian textile industry has hit saturation growth in the man-made fibre (MMF) textiles and clothing segment, due to which it could not achieve the envisaged growth rate. According to the SIMA chairman, M. Senthil Kumar, the MMF textiles and clothing exports accounted for 20 percent and cotton textiles for 80 percent exports in India, while, it was the other way around in China.

The prices of MMF were higher due to 5 percent import duty, four percent special additional duty, 12.5 percent central excise duty, and anti-dumping duty on certain fibres and filaments.

With the annual budget only a few days ago, Senthil Kumar expressed hope that the centre would remove these excess duties imposed on MMF. He added that if given a fair chance, the Indian textiles and clothing industry could easily grow beyond USD110 billion by 2023.