Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is expected to unveil the Union Budget for FY 2018-19 on February 1, 2018. This will be Narendra Modi Government’s fifth and the last full-size budget before the Lok Sabha polls next year.

The garment and textile industry, the second largest employment provider after agriculture in India, has high hopes from the upcoming Union Budget in easing their troubles. The industry has been facing the heat of Government policies, be it is GST or demonetisation. Both the policies hit hard the labour-intensive and cash-dependent industry.

Additional allocation to upgrade technology and interest subvention are the major expectations of the industry from the Union Budget.

Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), the official body of Indian apparel exporters, has highlighted certain points like incentives, duty-free import of speciality fabric (up to 1 per cent of export value of garments), 24×7 customs allowance, GST withdrawal on air-freight and tax-free sample imports as the key announcements that they would like to see in the budget 2018.

South India Garment Association (SIGA) raised the issue of two slabs under GST for the apparel sector which has started adversely impacting the garment manufacturing and retail industries in India. The body expects certain relaxation in the budget.

Garment export from India noted a 3 per cent decline in December 2017 to US $ 2.99 billion. The Government will too be concerned about this drop and is anticipated to take some actions to uplift exports.

Come February 1st, stay tuned as Apparel Resources will share every bit of the Budget 2018 for the garment and textile industry.