Spinning mills in the country would go on a one day token strike to protest against the “negligence and insensitivity of the Centre” towards the problems of the textile industry, T. Rajkumar, Chairman of Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) said here on Saturday.

The date would be announced after consulting the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry and North India Textile Mills Association, he added.

“Despite highlighting the problems to the Commerce, Textile and Finance ministries
through representations and personal meetings, no action has been taken to solve them. This is affecting the spinning mills adversely,” Mr. Rajkumar said, after an emergency meeting of SIMA’s high level committee this evening.

The spinners wanted a level playing field by making raw material cost of both cotton and synthetic fibres available at a slightly lower price or on a par with international prices, he said.

Stating that the Government should expedite Free Trade Agreements with all major textile importing countries, particularly China and European Union, he urged that the tariff rate should be made slightly lower or on a par with other competing nations.

There was also a demand for a National Textile Policy to be announced at the earliest.

The meeting also urged the Centre to allocate Rs.6,500 crore to clear all pending cases and existing committed liabilities of Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme.

“Similarly, the Government should expedite the implementation of Goods and Service Tax and bring textile products under lowest rate of GST as the textile industry was a low profit margin industry,” Mr. Rajkumar said.

The industry would decide the future course of action, including stopping of one day production of yarn across the country, if the Government failed to address the grievances, Rajkumar added.