CITI urges for a host of excise duty concessions

Mumbai, Nov 25 (UNI) The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) has urged the Government to reduce the excise duty on man-made fibre products to four per cent from the existing eight.

The CITI, which is an apex chamber representing textile, clothing and textile machinery industry, has submitted specific proposals to the Government to assist in the growth of the sector.

CITI deputy chairman P D Patodia, in a meeting convened by the Ministry of Finance on November 15, had pointed out that rationalisation of excise duty and removal of SSI reservations during the last couple of years have resulted in significant growth in the production and exports of textile products.

Besides urging for a reduction in the excise duty on man-made fibre products, the CITI has also urged that the option currently available to all textile manufacturers to pay excise duty and take Cenvat credit on duty paid at the previous stage or not to pay excise duty, be maintained.

The CITI has further urged that import duty on polyester and viscose fibre be removed in order to make imports viable. The CITI also wants the removal of excise and customs duties on furnace oil for captive power generation by the textile industry, a CITI press release here said.

The excise duty on all textile machinery also needs to be reduced to eight per cent from the present sixteen, while the customs duty on such machinery, their components and spare-parts needs to be reduced to five per cent, the release said. This will help the machinery industry to build up capacities and source machinery from international suppliers till the time the domestic machinery industry is able to meet the demand, it added.

Among the other proposals, the CITI wants all export-related activities to be exempted from service tax, and the Central Sales Tax to be reduced to two per cent immediately and subsequently abolished altogether. Removal of the Textiles Committee Cess which has been in force since the 1970s and the extension of the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme upto the end of the 11th Plan Period, are among the other proposals put forth by the CITI before the Government.

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