Ashish Gujarati, the vice president of the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI), has urged the Finance Minister, in her upcoming Budget, to defer the MSME payment rule for a year and implement it gradually. This approach will help the industry transition from longer to shorter credit systems. He also highlighted the need for the government to ensure raw materials are available at international prices and quality to help Indian exporters compete globally.
Gujarati stressed that the Government should not include fabric and garments in free trade agreements (FTAs) with various countries. He also suggested that the government should come out with a special incentive scheme for the weaving and knitting industry.
Gaurang Bhagat, President of Gujarat-based Maskati Cloth Market Association has strongly demanded imposition of anti-dumping duty (ADD) on fabric imports from China, citing that Chinese suppliers are undercutting domestic prices. He expressed concerns over the manipulation of the Harmonized System Nomenclature (HSN) code to evade duties, which exacerbates the crisis in the domestic textile industry.
Subir Mukherjee, Business Head-Denim at Bhaskar Industries, recommended duty-free cotton imports for fabric exporters or refunding import duties to support them. He also called for increasing the RoDTEP value cap for chapter 5211 to match chapter 5209, as denim exports under chapter 5211 constitute over 40 per cent of India’s total denim exports.
Mukherjee suggested limiting duty-free imports to fabrics originating from Bangladesh or India to prevent Chinese fabric from entering India via Bangladesh. He also proposed conducting Indo-Bangla textile trade in Indian rupees to reduce transaction costs and urged significant investments in infrastructure to enhance delivery times and competitiveness.
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
