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New Delhi, May 27 (PTI) Representatives from Apparel Export Promotion Council today raised issues related to blockage of GST refunds and delay in disbursal of Rebate on State Levies (RoSL) dues in a meeting with Finance Minister Piyush Goyal and Textiles Minister Smriti Irani here.
The country?s textile and apparel exports have witnessed a down slide in the last eight months.
A statement issued by the AEPC said that in the two-hour long meeting, the finance minister noted the concerns of the apparel industry with regard to the huge blockages in GST refunds and the slow disbursements in RoSL.
Finance minister has instructed his team to urgently identify central and state embedded taxes and work out a reimbursement mechanism. Also, Ministry will expedite GST and RoSL refunds in a time bound manner,? AEPC claimed.
The body further said that Goyal assured all possible support from his ministry to enable growth in exports and job creation by the employment intensive apparel, made ups and textile industries.
According to Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), due to the blockages of working capital ? arising because of the blocked GST refunds and slow disbursements in RoSL – the industry has not been able to book orders in the peak season and hence is losing out to its competitors in a big way.
Industry apprised finance minister about the crisis faced across industry ? in embedded and inverted taxes not being considered for refund as well as the huge delays in receiving GST/ROSL claims. Since over 90 per cent of apparel manufacturers are in the MSME sector with limited financial capability, this has created crippling pressure,? said HKL Magu, Chairman, AEPC.
AEPC claimed that the apparel industry has witnessed a reduction in the drawback and RoSL benefits by over 5 per cent of (Freight on Board) FoB since the pre-GST period.
This, coupled with the disadvantage of around 10 per cent faced by the industry vis-a-vis its competitors in the major markets like EU, due to lack of preferential access, had led to India losing out to Bangladesh and Vietnam in a big way, it said.
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Items must form at least 50% of all cargo
Foreign-flagged ships will be allowed to transport agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and animal husbandry commodities between Indian ports without a licence, the Shipping Ministry said in an order issued on Tuesday in a second round of cabotage relaxation.
On Monday, the Ministry had eased cabotage rules by allowing foreign-flagged container ships to carry export-import (Exim) containers for transshipment and empty containers on local routes without a licence.
Local route access
Only Indian registered ships are allowed to ply on local routes for carrying cargo, according to India’s cabotage law. Foreign ships can operate along the coast only when Indian ships are not available, after taking a licence from the Director-General of Shipping, according to the rule that was designed to protect local ship owners. The cabotage relaxation granted to foreign flagged ships for carrying agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and animal husbandry commodities specified in the Indian Trade Classification (ITC), Harmonised System (HS) of the Director-General of Foreign Trade, Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is conditional on such commodities contributing to at least 50 per cent of the total cargo on board the ship, PK Sharma, Under Secretary in the Shipping Ministry, said in the
Commodities
These commodities are meat and edible meat offal, fish and crustaceans, molluscs and other aquatic invertebrates, dairy produce, bird’s eggs, natural honey, edible products of animal origin (not elsewhere included), vegetables and certain roots and tubers-edible, fruits and nuts- edible, peel of citrus fruits or melons, coffee, tea, mate and spices, cereals, products of the milling industry, malt, starch, inulin, wheat gluten, oil seeds and oleaginous fruits, miscellaneous grains, seeds and fruit, industrial or medicinal plants, straw and fodder, vegetable plaiting materials (not elsewhere specified or included), animal or vegetable fats and oils and their cleavage products, wool prior to yarn formation, cotton, prior to yarn/thread formation, vegetable textile fibres such as flax, hemp and jute.
Water-borne transportation modes, including coastal shipping, being comparatively cheaper modes of transport would enable farmers to access a larger market profitably, widen the range of goods which can be marketed, and lengthen the distances over which domestic trade can be conducted, according to the ministry.
The national perspective plan of Sagarmala programme estimates a potential of more than 9 million tonnes a year for coastal movement of food grains and processed food.
The new Chief Minister, who claimed his government will pre-empt protests with talks, seems to be facing several challenges already. It’s not just farmers who are disgruntled, so are garment workers.
Garment workers are all set to launch an agitation demanding that the new government implement the revision of minimum wages that the Siddaramaiah-led government attempted by issuing a draft notification in February 2018, but withdrew in March 2018. The industry employs around 4.5 lakh people in the State, mostly women, with nearly 3.5 lakh workers in Bengaluru alone.
The Labour Department issued a draft notification on Feb. 22, 2018, proposing to double minimum wages in the tailoring industry. The wages were proposed to be revised to ?445 a day for an unskilled worker in the tailoring industry in Bengaluru, more than double what is presently paid at ?220 a day. The highest wages proposed was for highly skilled workers in Bengaluru at ?593/day and the least for unskilled workers in taluks and panchayats at ?385/day.
But the garment workers’ hopes were dashed when the Labour Department issued an order withdrawing the draft notification. The department said the industry management objected to the revision on the grounds that minimum wages in Karnataka were higher than in other States and it would have an adverse impact on an industry that is already facing tough international competition.
“This is a false argument. Minimum wages in China, which dominates the garments industry across the world, pays almost double the wages paid here. Industrialists have held up minimum wage revisions earlier as well,” said K.R. Jayaram, secretary, Garments and Textile Workers’ Union (GATWU). The last revision in 2009 was implemented in 2014 only after labour unions won a case in the High Court.
But the justification for the withdrawal of the draft notification was that it was to ensure pay parity between the tailoring industry, spinning mill industry, silk industry, and dyeing and printing industry. A tripartite committee of the government, industry, and labour unions has also been formed to ensure pay parity. A copy of the order is available with The Hindu.
GATWU argues this is only a fig leaf and a deliberate obfuscation of facts by the government.
“The same Labour Department had even issued final notification revising minimum wages for spinning mill, silk and dyeing, and printing industries on December 30, 2017, and the new wages that have come into force are exactly the same as proposed in the draft notification for tailoring industry. Pay parity will be achieved if wages are revised for tailoring industry as well,” said Pratibha R., president, GATWU.
“We demand that the new government scrap the Labour Department’s order withdrawing the draft notification and implement the revised wages with immediate effect. If they don’t, we will hold a large agitation in Mandya on June 12,” Ms. Pratibha said.
According to the General Department of Customs (GDC), the US remained Vietnam’s biggest export market in the first four months of the year which consumed USD 13.8 billion worth of Vietnam’s exports, an increase of 11.4 percent over the same period last year.
Vietnam-US bilateral trade turnover, which was USD 1.4 billion only in 2001, has been increasing steadily since the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) took effect, reaching USD 50.8 billion last year.
The big challenge for Vietnam is the strict regulations that export products have to observe. In addition to the federal law, each US state has different rules and regulations of its own.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai warned that the US tends to tighten imports by setting up new requirements on product quality, food hygiene and product traceability. “The US’s big changes in its trade policies will have a big impact on the export of many Vietnam’s key items,” Hai said.
The businesspeople present at the Vietnam-US Trade Forum held in HCMC several days ago confirmed that more Vietnam’s export products now bear anti-dumping duties or have to satisfy higher technical requirements.
Any export product, from shrimp, fish to steel nails and any business could be subject to anti-dumping or anti-subsidy lawsuits.
The US policy to protect local production had tightened recently, which means the high possibility of Vietnamese exporters becoming defendants in lawsuits.
Currently, Vietnam exports 60,000 tons of shrimp to the US or just 10 percent of total shrimp products the US imports a year. Vietnam’s capacity is twice as much as the figure.
According to Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), Vietnam’s major export products to the US are footwear, textile & garments, wooden furniture and electronics which have low added value.
LAHORE: The official comprehensive tests of cotton seeds have revealed that all non-Bt varieties, including standard elite lines, have been contaminated with Bt genes, leading to productivity losses due to growing resistance against the toxic protein, The News learnt on Saturday.
The Bt cotton has been genetically modified by the insertion of one or more genes from a common soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). These genes encode for the production of insecticidal proteins, and thus, genetically transformed plants produce one or more toxins as they grow.
Pakistan Central Cotton Committee, in a meeting held in Multan, learnt that all the widely cultivated fifteen non-Bt cotton varieties, developed by public and private sector institutions, included in the biochemical test (BCT) under the National Coordinated Varietal Trials (NCVT) 2018 have emerged as contaminated.
According to the BCT results, compiled in accordance with the lab examination of four leading institutions, the standard elite varieties of CIM-620 and CRIS-129 developed by Central Cotton Research Institutes (CCRIs) located at Multan and Sakrand respectively, are also no more conventional seed types.
The standard seed varieties are elite lines of cotton and their different characteristics also act as a benchmark for comparing it with new competing varieties.
Monsanto, the multinational agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation, first developed a cotton variety, containing a gene derived from the Bt bacterium. This gene is inserted into cotton plants that produce a toxic protein which eventually kills the bollworm.
The successful functioning of Bt cotton also depends on cultivation of non-Bt varieties on the same field to avoid development of resistance in pests against the toxic protein.
With the disclosure that many non-Bt cotton varieties have been contaminated with Bt gene, one of the main reasons hindering cotton output may have been discovered. Many believe that it is a tip of an iceberg associated with our ailing cotton economy.
The growing pest resistance against Bt cotton seed that produces proteins in the plant for killing bollworms has been termed as one of the main reasons for dwindling cotton production in the country. This is alarming as it leads to increasing resistance in pests as it has happened without any gene transformation technique, backcrossing or breeding process, but probably due to various gene flows.
Ibrahim Mughal, chairman Agri-Forum Pakistan, said the bollworm had emerged as the biggest threat to cotton in the country as they inflicted the biggest dent to the national output. The damages done by bollworms have been estimated at as high as 3.8 million bales of cotton annually, which is huge if compared with maximum production of about 14 million bales, Mughal said.
Dr Khalid Abdullah, the federal cotton commissioner, termed carelessness on the part of department concerned as the main reason of contamination of non-Bt cotton varieties. He, however, did not agree that this unwelcoming development was due to contamination of cotton seed. “You can call it mixing of Bt seeds in the non-Bt verities that takes place during ginning process,” Abdullah claimed and said,” We need to gin Bt and non-Bt cotton varieties separately.”
As far as resistance management is concerned against the Bt cotton varieties, he acknowledged that cotton production could be adversely affected due to non-practice of refuge as it was found that many non-Bt cotton varieties had been lost.
“I totally agree with the point that resistance in bollworms would definitely increase, which is not a good omen. We have asked the department concerned to take immediate measures for eliminating cotton contamination from non-cotton varieties,” Abdullah said.
Hadyat Ullah Bhutto, senior scientific officer CCRI Sakrand, said there was no consistency in the results of labs about presence of Bt genes in the non-Bt cotton varieties. “The varied results are also not dependable in the sense that we cannot properly do scientific work,” Bhutto said.
To a question, he said there was a possibility of contamination of non-Bt varieties due to cross pollination even during propagation level.
The contamination of non-Bt cotton would invite onslaught of bollworms on greater extent due to altering of gene expression, he observed.
The genetic contamination of cotton varieties points to a messy situation of our seed research and development chain that has been laced with flawed agronomic practices.
Dil Baugh Muhammad, principal scientific officer at CCRI Multan, said cross pollination could be a reason of this contamination. He agreed that there was a likelihood of increase in resistance in bollworm due to sowing of non-Bt varieties as refuge that in fact had become Bt, having a varied gene expression.
Dr Neil Forrester, a leading Australian scientist who closely monitored cotton related developments during research and development work in Pakistan was very much clear about negative impact of such worrying developments.
Forrester observed that continuation of these high levels of Bollgard gene contamination would ultimately lead to resistance to the insecticidal Bt genes and thus loss of the utility of this key set of genes for control of lepidopteran pests in cotton (and other hosts crops).
“Impurity of herbicide resistance genes in a field of cotton sprayed with that herbicide (eg roundup glyphosate) will lead to death of the non-glyphosate tolerant plants in the sprayed crop,” the Australian expert said.
About remedy for dealing this complex situation, Forrester said the government regulation of all transgenic genes in all crops is needed. Help from governments in countries who have successfully already done this should be sought, he added.
A spokesman of Punjab Agriculture Department said the provincial government always stressed on planting non-Bt crop with Bt cotton, but the important point here was that Bt cotton planted in Pakistan is Bollgard-I technology, which had become obsolete and lost effectiveness against Pink bollworm and less effective against Heliothis. “Being old technology, there are issues of purity and gene expression,” the spokesman said.
It is very imperative to mention here that India switched to Bollgard-II Bt technology in 2006. In Australia, 100 percent GMO cotton is Bollgard-III which is the latest version of Bt and glyphosate resistance.
The spokesman added that Punjab government was now transforming cotton research system to align it with advanced technologies. “In this context, a Punjab Cotton Mission 2025 has been drafted for increasing Punjab cotton productivity from 8 million bales to 15 million bales,” the provincial agriculture department official said.
PUNE: India is the second largest textile manufacturing and exporting country in the world next only to China has been facing challenges on the logistics cost front, especially transport of cotton from cotton growing states to cotton consuming states. The steep increase in diesel price has increased the lorry transportation cost.
Though India is the largest cotton producing country and net exporter of cotton in the world, the domestic cotton textile industry could not derive competitive advantage due to the steep increase in cotton transportation cost. At the same time, countries like China and Vietnam could transport the cotton at a much cheaper cost in the international cotton trade. The average cotton transportation cost between Gujarat and China is far less than USD 200 for a 40-foot container having a capacity of 170 cotton bales each weighing 170 kgs. (i.e., less than Rs.100 per bale).
During the peak cotton season the lorry freight per bale between Gujarat ginning factory (the largest cotton producing state in the country) and spinning mills in Tamil Nadu (that account 47% of the spinning capacity in the country and producing less than 5% of its annual cotton requirement) was ruling upto Rs.1,000 per bale. The transportation cost for imported cotton from countries in West Africa to the spinning mills in Tamil Nadu was ruling around Rs.400 per bale.
Therefore, the industry opted for the cotton transport by rail and ship. But, the price difference between lorry and these modes of transport was less than 10%. While competing countries are transporting cotton at a cheaper price, our cost is still high. Against this background, the cotton textile industry demanded relaxation of cabbotage rule for transporting cotton from ports in Gujarat to ports in Tamil Nadu and use foreign flag vessels to carry the cotton.
At the direction of PMO, the Ministry of Shipping and DG shipping immediately convened the stakeholders meeting, facilitated reduction of cost by exempting the fuel used by the Indian flag vessels from Central Excise Duty and also 40% discount in the port handling charges. Since the Government did not exempted the fuel from Sales Tax and also the Indian flag vessels from Seafarer Tax, the cost remained high.
In addition, only one or two players extended the service during the last three years charging high rate. The cost difference worked out to 10 to 15% less than the lorry transport. The lorry transport mode takes 3 to 4 days, while sea route takes around 15 days. Therefore, only larger mills could utilize this facility. Hence, the industry continued to demand for relaxation of cabbotage rule for cotton transport.
Now the Ministry of Shipping has relaxed the cabbotage rule for transportation of cotton along with several other products and issued a General Order. In a press release issued here today, P.Nataraj, Chairman, The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has thanked the Prime Minister, Ministry of Shipping and Ministry of Textiles for considering the long pending demand and relaxing the cabbotage rule for cotton transport. He has said that this initiative would greatly benefit the lakhs of cotton farmers in Gujarat and the spinning mills in Tamil Nadu.
Nataraj has said that the foreign flag vessels might be in a position to offer a competitive rate as large number of empty foreign containers being transported between the ports in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu and also the tax benefits extended for foreign flag vessels. SIMA Chairman has stated that Tamil Nadu spinning mills consume around 50 lakh bales of cotton grown in Gujarat. As this cotton has most preferred fibre quality parameters, the knitted garments produced by the Tirupur cluster would be greatly benefitted.
Surat: The two-member anti-profiteering screening committee in the state formed under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) laws has sought documentary evidences, including bills, from powerloom weaving associations in the city to prove their claims about phenomenal increase in yarn prices.
The anti-profiteering screening committee, which is headed by GST commissioner from Central Government, Sunil Kumar Singh, and additional sales tax commissioner, Gujarat, Supreet Singh Gulati, is believed to have asked leaders of powerloom sector to submit details of yarn price hike along with invoice details.
The action has come after powerloom leaders had complained about artificial price hike by yarn spinners, even as GST rates have been brought down from 18 per cent to 12 per cent.
Sources informed that the anti-profiteering screening committee has sought the bills and other details from Pandesara Weavers Cooperative Society Limited and Sachin Cooperative Industrial Society Limited to validate the claim on hike in yarn prices by the spinners.
Powerloom weavers stated that since October 2017 till May 2018, the yarn spinners have increased yarn prices by almost 35 per cent. This despite the fact that the GST Council has reduced GST rates on yarn from 18 per cent to 12 per cent. The yarn spinners, instead of reducing the prices, have gone on to increase the yarn prices.
“We will be submitting all the invoice and original bills issued by the yarn spinners to the anti-profiteering screening committee for a final decision. The yarn spinners charged Rs118 per kilogram on the yarn priced at Rs100 by adding 18 per cent GST. When the GST was reduced to 12 per cent, the same yarn priced at Rs118 was sold with 12 per cent GST. However, we have demanded that the difference of 6 per cent on GST’s reduction be refunded by the yarn spinners,” Pandesara Weavers Cooperative Society Limited president Ashish Gujarati said.
Nagpur: In a bid to prevent pink bollworm attack, the pest which ruined cotton crop last year, the state agriculture department has allowed only short duration varieties of plants for the coming season. Till last year, cotton seeds that gave crops spanning even 160 to 180 days were available in the market. These varieties have not been granted permission for Kharif season of 2018.
If the long duration crops remain in fields post November, it coincides with the bollworm’s life cycle. This is not possible in crops with a shorter lifespan. Short duration crops, however, will mean less rounds of cotton picking for the farmer. Farmers prefer to continue the crop for maximum possible period to get higher output.
Short duration crops don’t survive beyond three months, and can be cleared much before the bollworm emerges on the fields. The agriculture department has denied licences for 26 varieties of cotton seeds this year. All these seeds are of a span ranging up to 180 days, said a senior official in the department.
Farmers in the region prefer continuing the crop up to February-March, so that maximum amount of cotton bolls are picked and earnings maximized. This also exposes the crop to bollworm. mThe problem came up only a couple of years ago. The Bt cotton seeds, which are usually used by farmers, are supposed to be resistant to the pest. However, there has been a gradual failure of the genetically modified crops, with the crisis being worse in Maharashtra during 2017. Prior to it, there was a major attack in Gujarat.
The state has also started a drive to ensure that stalks of last year’s cotton crop which are cut from the fields are destroyed. It has been found that the stalks are still lying in many fields Teams of officials are touring villages to ensure that the plants are burned down, said a senior officer.
Farmers TOI spoke to said they are ready to accept the short duration varieties as long as it saves them from the bollworm attack. Vijay Ingle, a farmer from Akot, said they may settle for less harvest, which can be compensated by growing gram subsequently. “We are ready for less output, if it helps in doing away with the bollworms, which had left us bleeding,” said Vinod Kankirad, a farmer in Yavatmal. Kishore Tiwari, chairman of Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swavalamban Mission (VNSSM), a state government agency, however, expressed concern saying that short varieties may reduce the earnings for farmers.
Aditya Birla Group firm is expanding viscose staple fibre capacity by 2.4 times at a cost of ?4,257 crore
Aditya Birla Group firm Grasim Industries, one of India’s largest viscose staple fibre (VSF) producers, is expanding its capacity by 2.4 times to make 788 kilotonnes per annum (ktpa) of VSF by 2021 at cost of ?4,257 crore and market it as the most sustainable fibre compared to polyester or cotton.
“Viscose is the most sustainable fibre,” Sushil Agarwal, director, Grasim and Group CFO, told The Hindu.
Polluting products
“Making one cotton T-shirt takes 2,600 litres of water, 99 gram of fertiliser and 4.5 gram of pesticide while polyester t-shirt is the polluter as its biodegradability is 200 years and human toxicity is very high,” he added.
VSF’s global demand has been growing at a CAGR of 6% compared with cotton’s 1% and polyester staple fibre’s (PSF) 2%, making Grasim invest in the VSF business. Grasim is the world’s fourth largest pulp producer with a VSF plant in China.
“In India, the demand growth for VSF at 8% is higher than global demand growth, driven by business development efforts of Grasim,” Dilip Gaur, MD, Grasim, said in an interview.
“The demand share as a percentage of total fibre demand for VSF is projected to grow to over 6% by 2022 compared to 4.75% in 2012,” he added. “The demand share as a percentage of total fibre demand for cotton is likely to go down to 23.86% by 2022 compared to 27.47% in 2012.”
Cost control
Grasim has ensured control over 80% of the costs through backward integration, giving it a significant competitive advantage over non –integrated players.
“Our manufacturing input of caustic soda, power and steam and carbon disulfide are fully captive and we have control over 60% of the pulp requirements,” said Mr. Agarwal.
The company, after the successful introduction of its fabric brand Liva in 2015 in the Indian market, is planning to take the brand international. Liva helped Grasim lift its domestic sales volume to 3,69,480 metric tonnes (mt) in FY18 compared with 3,12,238 mt in FY16 as Liva’s outlets grew 18 times from 2,035 to 37,420 during the period.
“We are planning to take Liva to Indonesia next, followed by Turkey,” said Mr. Gaur. “We already have a design studio in New York. We are tying up with international designers to promote Liva as fabric of choice,” he added.
The company plans to spend ?4,257 crore of the ?13,327 crore of capital expenditure towards brownfield expansion and debottlenecking of VSF plants.
Indian Government has partnered with decentralised energy platform ImpactPPA to generate 50 million rural jobs in the country.
Under the auspice of the Giriraj Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), ImpactPPA will be working with the MSME to carry out the government’s Bhartiya Harit Khadi Gramodaya Sansthan (BHKGS) initiative. The initiative is likely to introduce around 50 million jobs for female workers in India’s rural areas.
The initiative will be started with Khanwan village in Bihar. Under the programme, textile looms will be installed in the homes of women workers. As per the partnership, ImpactPPA will deliver renewable energy to power these looms, using the Ethereum blockchain to manage supply-chain logistics for the initiative.
“It’s an honor to work with the government of India to deploy out technology solutions,” Dan Bates, CEO of ImpactPPA, said. “A project of this scope clearly demonstrates that the use of renewable energy and blockchain technology has reached the mainstream. This partnership perfectly aligns with our fundamental mission to help improve quality of life with energy as the engine for social good and greater economic justice,” he added.
As per the estimations done under the partnerships, the female workers could generate 8,000-10,000 rupees (USD 115-145) a month which is around 60 per cent increase to the monthly incomes of some of the families. The joint monthly income for families in some of India’s poorest villages is estimated around 7,000 rupees (USD 100).
Having worked with the government of India on various solutions and projects for social impact, this alliance is a game-changer,” said Aradhana Singh, CEO and managing director of Sarang Services Pvt Ltd, a company serving as India’s domestic partner for the project. “We are thrilled that ImpactPPA will be the provider of energy and blockchain technology and services for the project, bringing tangible economic growth opportunities while advocating women’s empowerment,” she further said.
