Karnal: Facing losses, textile industry disappointed by Union Budget

Parveen Arora Karnal, February 1 The textile industry has expressed its disappointment at the Union Budget, as the industrialists were expecting relief for the most labour-intensive sector, which is facing a financial crisis due to the Covid pandemic and the...

Tribune News Service

Updated At : 12:24 PM Feb 02, 2023 IST

Parveen Arora

Karnal, February 1

The textile industry has expressed its disappointment at the Union Budget, as the industrialists were expecting relief for the most labour-intensive sector, which is facing a financial crisis due to the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine war. They said their major demands had not been met in this Budget.

“We were expecting relief as the industry is already facing losses. We were thinking that the government would focus on export, but no major relief was given to this industry,” said Lalit Goel, chief, Panipat Exporters Association.

“We are demanding a rebate on interest on the bank loan, which was 5% two years back, but the government had reduced it to 3% last year. We have already raised this issue with the Union Commerce Minister, but no relief was given to us,” he said.

Tilak Raj Khattar, president, Panipat Handloom Traders’ Association, said the Union Minister had announced the enhancement of the production of extra-long staple (ELS) cotton in the Budget, which might provide some relief to the domestic industry. “It may provide ELS cotton locally and reduce the dependency

on ELS cotton import from different countries. Apart from it, nothing major has been done for this industry.”

Bheem Rana, chairman of the Federation of Industrial Association, Panipat, said they were competing with China in the textile sector. So the government should have extended relief to this industry. Instead, it had increased the import duty of textile machinery, which would also affect the industry in an adverse way. “We request the government to retain the import duty for all types of textile machinery,” he added.

Vibhu Paliwal, secretary, Panipat Export Association, and chief, Haryana Traders Welfare Board, said the government had given a big relief to salaried persons by increasing the tax slab. “It shouldn’t have increased the import duty on textile machinery since we are still dependent on other countries for the equipment,” Paliwal added.