The Director General of Foreign Trade announced a new list of textile items eligible for export sops, last week which excluded certain knitted fabrics for concession under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme. This came as a big surprise for the Cotton Textiles Exports Promotion Council (Texprocil).

Knitted fabrics with HS (Harmonized System) Code 6006, which covers most of the knitted fabrics including those with lycra are value added products that are used widely in garments were left out in the list of items covered for export benefit.

RK Dalmia, Chairman of Texprocil has urged the Centre to include knitted fabrics under HS code 6006 to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, besides extending export sops to value-added products such as cotton dyed and printed fabrics and made-ups to African countries.

These products, including khangas and khatangas, are used in traditional African dresses, and are predominantly manufactured by SME units in India.

However, Texprocil welcomed the decision to include exports of cotton fabrics – woven and knitted – to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka under the MEIS. Dalmia said that the decision would play a major role in boosting fabric exports to both countries as they are strong in garmenting and India is known for fabrics.

According to Dalmia, if any benefit is granted to fabrics then it should cover the entire range to avoid unintended exclusions.