ITF welcomes structural reforms in budget 2020-21

"Today's budget announcement of abolishing anti-dumping duty on purified terephthalic acid (PTA), a key raw material for the man-made fibre (MMF) industry, will be a big booster to Indian textile sector’s export competitiveness," ITF said in a press release.

The decision is a first step towards bringing structural changes in the raw material eco-system. It will strengthen Indian textile sector's dream of capturing better market share in MMF and blended apparels. US market alone offers ₹3 lakh crore opportunity in MMF apparel, ITF said. "Raw materials at competitive prices is a basic factor that will boost Make in India." 

With such structural changes, Indian apparel sector can move towards capturing 10 per cent share of the US market as against the current share of 2.5 per cent.

The second big structural reform announced in today's budget, according to ITF, is regarding brining suitable provisions in the Customs Act and reviewing the Rules of Origin requirements to ensure that there is no dumping through FTA route. This will help textile sector in a big way to face the rising imports of clothing into the domestic market.

The third big reform is the announcement of setting up of a National Technical Textiles Mission. "Technical Textiles is the big opportunity sector within textile manufacturing space, and hence formulation of this mission will help tap the huge potential of the sector," ITF said.

ITF has thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union textiles minister Smriti Irani, and finance minister Sitharaman for the structural change to support the textile sector’s efforts, and to make Indian textile sector globally competitive.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)