Union Budget has a few for textiles, reduces import duty on feedstock

Proposals
The 2014-15 Union Budget presented to the Parliament on 10 July, proposes to set up a Trade Facilitation Centre and a Crafts Museum with an outlay of Rs 50 crore for the development and promotion of handloom products and carry forward the rich tradition of handlooms of Varanasi.

The budget also intends to support the Textile mega-cluster policy. It had proposed to set up six more Textile mega-clusters at Bareily, Lucknow, Surat, Kuttch, Bhagalpur, Mysore and one in Tamil Nadu. The Budget has allocated an amount of Rs 200 crore to set up these clusters.

An amount of Rs 30 crore has been set aside to set up a Hastkala Academy for the preservation, revival, and documentation of the handloom/handicraft sector in PPP mode in Delhi. Similarly, Rs50 crore has been allocated to start a Pashmina Promotion Programme (P-3) and a programme for the development of other crafts of Jammu & Kashmir.

Import Duty

The Union Budget 2014-15 has revised the basic customs duty on specified inputs for manufacture of spandex yarn from 5 per cent to Nil.

To encourage new investment in the chemicals and petrochemicals sector, the Budget has reduced the basic customs duty on reformate from 10 percent to 2.5 percent; on ethylene, propylene, and ortho-xylene from 5 percent to 2.5 percent.