The Cotton Textile Export Promotion Council of India (Texprocil) welcomes the Centre’s move to double the time limit for availing Cenvat credit on inputs to one year. It has also expected the increase in service tax by two percent to 14 percent to impact the overall cost.

However, RK Dalmia, Chairman, Texprocil said that the government should have announced measures for speedy refund of service tax on export-related services.

The special additional duty on various imported raw material and inputs was announced, but unfortunately no mention of textile items in it.

Though textile industry was expecting higher allocation under the technology upgradation fund, the intention to roll out the much-awaited GST from April 1, 2016 and cut in corporate tax to 25 percent from 30 percent over four years is a big relief. GST would make manufacturing more competitive and support the ‘Make in India’ campaign.

The textiles sector has generated the highest employment. The sector is among the top seven categories of export products, according to the Economic Survey 2014-15. However, the Budget has not addressed all the issues faced of the textile industry.

However, creation of a project development company to facilitate setting up manufacturing hubs in n CMLV countries, namely, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam will open up new opportunities.