National Committee on Textiles & Clothing (NCTC) has appealed to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for removing anti-dumping duty (ADD) on viscose staple fibre (VSF).
The NCTC has also requested to address the VSF spun yarn availability and price issues to prevent job losses and stoppage of production across the VSF textile value chain.
This is the second appeal made to the PM in this regard.
The textile industry has been facing stagnation since many years mainly due to the lack of availability of the basic raw materials of man-made fibre/filament yarn at internationally competitive prices.
Taking a serious view of the high price of VSF in India, the captains of the various segments of VSF value chain, viz Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), The Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI), Indian Spinners Association (ISA) and Powerloom Development Export Promotion Council (PDEXCIL) under the common platform of NCTC have unanimously submitted a joint representation to the Indian Prime Minister for the removal of ADD on import of VSF to achieve global competitiveness.
Union Minister of Textiles, Secretary, Textiles also has been requested to support the textile industry in this regard.
It is pertinent to mention here that owing to the growing demand for VSF and its blended textiles and clothing market opportunities, the demand for VSF has increased steeply not only in India, but also across the globe.
As the imported yarn price was cheaper due to high ADD prevailing on the domestic VSF, the weaving and knitting sectors have been importing large volumes of VSF spun yarn.
The import of VSF spun yarn has increased from 2 million kg during 2016-17 to 56 million kg during 2019-20.
In the post-Covid market scenario, VSF price has increased from US $ 1.15 to US $ 1.50 per kg during the last few months. As the domestic VSF price was expensive due to ADD (up to US $ 0.512 per kg), the demand for domestic spun yarn got reduced and therefore, the availability and price are affecting the entire VSF value chain especially the knitted and powerloom sectors.
All the major VSF powerloom clusters in the states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, etc. are agitating against the steep increase in VSF prices.
In view of the above, NCTC has appealed to the PM to remove the ADD levied on VSF on a war footing to address the burning issue, grab the emerging market opportunities and to protect the livelihoods of several lakhs of workers employed in the VSF textile value chain.
