In a report tabled in Parliament today, the Standing Committee on Labour chaired by Kirit Somaiya said that it desires the Textiles Ministry to impress upon the Department of Revenue/Finance Ministry to reconsider GST structure for textiles and impose higher anti-dumping duty to protect the domestic industry.

The panel noted that the Textiles Ministry has also taken up the issues on inverted duties structure on man-made fibre, imposition of GST on job work, credit transfer documents issues, non refund of input tax credit, GST for weaving industry, lowering of Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates for machinery used by MSME textile units, etc.

It observed that against the Textile Ministry’s proposed outlay of Rs 10,109.05 crore during the year 2018-19, the Ministry of Finance have approved Rs 7,147.73 crore only.

The Secretary, Ministry of Textiles has deposed that though it appears that Budgeted Expenditure (B.E) 2018-19 which includes Cotton Corporation of India’s loss of Rs 921.23 crore is more than the B.E 2017-18 by Rs 921.23 crore, in reality B.E 2018-19 is Rs 3 crore less than the B.E of 2017-18,” the Committee said in its report.

It noted that the reduction of B.E would adversely impact implementation of ongoing schemes of the Ministry of Textiles, particularly those aimed at benefitting the unorganised sectors of powerloom, handloom, handicrafts, wool and sericulture.