Garment makers want GST to be cut to 5% from 12%

The
Clothing Manufacturers Association of India has urged the Centre to reduce GST
on all readymade garments to 5 per cent from 12 per cent and retain the same on
all types of cotton yarn, synthetic yarn, fabrics and made-ups.

In
a pre-Budget memorandum sent to the Centre, Babubhai S Ayar, Chairman of Ashish Domestic Garments Manufacturers
Association and ex-Vice president of
CMAI, said that in order to grow the textile and clothing industry to the
set target of $280 billion by 2025, the government should bring in progressive,
export and production-oriented policy in the new Textile Policy.

Unrestricted
import of duty free garments from Bangladesh and China should be restricted, he
said.

“Moreover,
import of used garments into India should be fully stopped since it affects
productivity of trade and production capacity of Indian garment manufacturers,”
he said. Though the government has increased the limit of small scale
industries to Rs 5 crore, banks are not extending confessional of 1.5 per cent
on lending rates to companies that have been reclassified as SSI under new
norms.

The
last Textile Policy was announced in 2000. It will be in the interest of the
trade to frame new textile policy every five years, he said.

Urging
the government to facilitate textile parks such as the new Asmita Apparel Park
spread on 100 acres in the outskirts of Mumbai, Ayar said the production linked
incentive scheme for apparel and garments should be made applicable to fibre
and yarn.