Goyal said that once the traders across the country registered on UDYAM, the same can be developed as a single point for obtaining different licenses for conducting trading activities in India and will meet ease of doing business by the traders. Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal on Wednesday urged the business community of India to enroll themselves on the UDYAM portal of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). The enrolment of traders on the UDYAM portal will enable the traders to avail priority sector lending from banks and financial institutions which will strengthen their business activities and make them compatible to meet any domestic or global challenges, according to Goyal. According to the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), on Wednesday Goyal had a conversation with CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal. CAIT said that Goyal also accepted the request of CAIT to take up the issue of levy of 5 per cent GST on textile under 5 per cent tax slab. Goyal assured that he will soon take up this matter with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, CAIT said in a statement. Goyal said that once the traders across the country registered on UDYAM, the same can be developed as a single point for obtaining different licenses for conducting trading activities in India and will meet ease of doing business by the traders. Meanwhile, Khandelwal lauded the assurance given by Goyal on UDYAM making a one window system for traders and to take forward the issue of textile trade in respect of GST.
Source: Business World
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured the industrialists of Punjab to strengthen Ludhiana to become a textile hub and Mandi Gobindgarh as a steel city right ahead of the state assembly polls. This has raised expectations and hope among industrialists as both the places are two of the most significant industrial hubs of Punjab. He said this while addressing his maiden ‘Fateh’ rally through videoconferencing for the electorate of Ludhiana and Fatehgarh Sahib districts. “All ultra-modern facilities will be provided along with opportunities to ensure both the industrial cities reclaim their famous tags and compete in the international market with best infrastructure,” he added. He called Ludhiana as Manchester of India and pressed upon the mantra of ‘Sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas’. For infrastructure development in the northern state, the Prime Minister has promised to constitute a border area development authority and spend Rs 1 lakh crore.
Source: KNN India
Australia's Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Dan Tehan will travel to India on Wednesday Australia's Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Dan Tehan will travel to India on Wednesday to advance negotiations on a free trade agreement and promote Australia as a premium destination for students and tourists. The Australian government said in a release that Tehan will have several meetings with his Indian counterpart, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food, and Public Distribution and Textiles Piyush Goyal to further negotiations on the IndiaAustralia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA). "Mr Goyal and I have been in regular contact over the Christmas/New Year period because we are both committed to concluding an interim free trade agreement. Nothing can replace face-to-face meetings to help speed up the process in the interest of both countries," said Tehan and Australia and India are important trading partners, and we share a strong desire to further enhance our bilateral trade relationship. "A free trade agreement with India would be a boon for Australian businesses, farmers and workers, creating new jobs and opportunities with one of the world's largest and fastest developing economies," he added. The minister further said CECA is a potential game-changer in opening opportunities for both Australia and India. "It is also an important piece of our post-COVID economic recovery." Tehan will also sign a memorandum of understanding on behalf of the Australian Government with the Indian Government to promote further travel and tourism between the two countries, the release said.
Source: Business Standard
It will enable buyers and sellers to be digitally visible and transact through an open network, no matter what platform/ application they use. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) will give an opportunity to small retailers to compete with big firms and its beta version is likely to be launched in few months. As UPI is to the digital payment domain, ONDC is to e-commerce in India. It will enable buyers and sellers to be digitally visible and transact through an open network, no matter what platform/ application they use. Goyal said that over the past few years, large companies have almost taken a complete stronghold on e-commerce business and small retailers do not get equal opportunity to be able to engage with e-commerce due to weak financials and strong financial muscle of large firms. Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha, he said there are start-ups and small shops that are an important part of the ecosystem that provides retail shopping. "We are in the process of the governance structure of ONDC. We have taken technocrats to help us to create the technology and in another few months, we will be able to do a beta launch and this system will give opportunity for small retailers to stand up in competition against big companies," Goyal said. He added that the platform will provide opportunities for new start-ups to start creating a network of sellers, provide service to local areas, and increase competition. Like "you can Google any information and get a series of options, the same way it (ONDC) will be easy for somebody who wants to procure any product to get a lot of options", he added. ONDC received its certificate of incorporation as a private sector non-profit company on December 31, 2021. A number of established companies have integrated with the platform and the government has already set up a nine member advisory council, including Nandan Nilekani from Infosys and National Health Authority CEO R S Sharma, on steps required to design and accelerate the adoption of ONDC.
Source: Economic Times
With an objective to provide financial assistance to a group of entrepreneurs to establish state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities in a cluster for setting up their textile units, confirming to international environmental and social standards and thereby mobilize private investment in the textile sector and generate fresh employment opportunities, the government has been implementing Scheme for Industrial parks (SITP) since 2005. For each park, there is a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) formed by the representatives of local industry, financial institutions, State industrial and infrastructural corporations and other agencies of State and Central Governments. The SPV is registered under the Companies Act. The project cost covers common infrastructure and buildings for production/ support activities (including textile machinery, textiles engineering, accessories, packaging) depending on the need of textile park. The total financial support by GoI is limited to 40% of the project cost subject to a maximum of Rs.40 crores. However, support will be provided @90% of the project cost subject to a ceiling of Rs.40crores for first two projects (each) in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and UT of Laddakh and UT of Jammu & Kashmir. Recently, the Government has approved setting up of 7 (Seven) PM Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) Parks in Greenfield/Brownfield sites to develop world class infrastructure including plug and play facility with an outlay of Rs.4445 Crore for a period of seven years upto 2027-28. The PM MITRA Parks Scheme shall be implemented on pan-India basis and is intended for holistic development of the textile sector. The willing state governments having ready availability of contiguous and encumbrance-free land parcel of 1000+ acres are eligible to apply under the Scheme. It is envisaged to be on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. There is a provision of Development Capital Support (DCS) @30% of the project cost with a maximum support of Rs.500 Cr and Rs.200 Cr per park for Greenfield and Brownfield PM MITRA Park, respectively for creation of core Infrastructure. Chief Secretaries of all State Governments have been requested to send proposals for setting up PM MITRA Parks in their respective states by 15.3.2022. This information was given by the Minister of State for Textiles Smt. Darshana Jardosh in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
Source: PIB
Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel said the market access issues and trade barriers being faced in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries and China are being regularly taken up with individual countries through bilateral engagements. India is in discussion with the 10-nation bloc ASEAN for initiating the review of the freetrade agreement in goods between the two regions to seek more market access for domestic products, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel said the market access issues and trade barriers being faced in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries and China are being regularly taken up with individual countries through bilateral engagements. "The Government of India is in discussion with ASEAN countries for initiating the review of ASEAN-India trade in goods agreement to seek more market access for Indian products," she said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. In a separate reply, she said that to increase exports including apparel exports, India is actively negotiating regional trade agreements (RTAs)/ FTAs with a number of countries including the UAE, Australia, Canada, Israel and the UK. "Ongoing FTA negotiations will also provide more favourable market access to products exported from India," she said. The minister said that textile and apparel export growth has been facing adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and higher import tariffs in key markets such as the European Union and the United Kingdom as compared to zero duty access in these countries to competing countries like Bangladesh and Cambodia. Replying to a question on export dues, she said the government has released Rs 56,027 crore in order to clear pending export incentive dues to exporters. This is for various schemes - Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (Rs 33,010 crore, Service Exports from India Scheme ( Rs 10,002 crore), Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies ( Rs 5,286 crore), Rebate of State Levies (Rs 330 crore), and Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (Rs 2,568 crore) and other legacy schemes like Target Plus Scheme, Focus Product Scheme. "It is estimated that such benefits would be disbursed to more than 45,000 exporters, out of which the majority would be in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) category," Patel said. Clearance of dues under these schemes is dependent on meeting the eligibility criteria by the applicant exporter, whose applications are scrutinized for any deficiency.
Source: Economic Times
In 2018-19, it stood at USD 62 billion. In 2017-18, it was USD 60.97 billion and in 2016- 17, the FDI inflow to India stood at USD 60.22 billion. To promote FDI, the Government has put in place an investor-friendly policy, wherein most sectors are open for 100 per cent FDI under the automatic route, Parkash said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. India has received Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows worth USD 339.55 billion in the last five years, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Parkash said on Wednesday. There has been a continuous increase in the inflow of FDI in recent years. It increased from USD 45.15 billion in 2014-15 to USD 81.97 billion in 2020- 21. During the year 2019-20, the FDI inflows to India stood at USD 74.39 billion. In 2018- 19, it stood at USD 62 billion. In 2017-18, it was USD 60.97 billion and in 2016-17, the FDI inflow to India stood at USD 60.22 billion. To promote FDI, the Government has put in place an investor-friendly policy, wherein most sectors are open for 100 per cent FDI under the automatic route, Parkash said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. "Further, the policy on FDI is reviewed on an ongoing basis, to ensure that India remains attractive & investor friendly destination. Changes are made in the policy after having consultations with stakeholders including apex industry chambers, associations, representatives of industries/groups and other organizations," he said. The government has recently undertaken a number of reforms across sectors. In the last one year alone, reforms in the FDI policy have been undertaken in sectors such as insurance, defence, petroleum and natural gas, and telecom. The Minister noted that Foreign Direct Investment inflows serve to augment domestic investments, promote industrial development and employment generation across sectors and ancillary industries. "Further, such investments bring international best practices and latest technologies which facilitate in skill development, export promotion and improvement of overall competitiveness of economy leading to overall economic growth and development in the country," he added.
Source: Economic Times
According to the Railways ministry the textile train will particularly benefit the textile market of Surat. Five months after flagging off the first textile parcel special train with customized new modified goods or NMG wagons, Mumbai Center division of Western Railways on Wednesday loaded the 100th textile train from Chalthan in Surat to Sankrail in Kharagpur Division of Southeastern Railways. Terming the loading of the 100th textile train in a span of five months ‘a milestone’, a Railways Ministry note here stated that “it reflects growing confidence of the Surat textile sector on railways.” The train dedicated to the textile sector covers major destinations such as Shankrail, Shalimar under South Eastern Railway and Danapur and Narayanpur under East Central Railway.
Source: The Statesman
It has been a custom that the finance minister addresses the RBI board, consisting of RBI Governor and existing four deputy governors, after the budget Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to address the post-budget meeting of the RBI's central board on Monday and highlight key points of the Union Budget 2022- 23, including the fiscal consolidation roadmap and high capex plan. It has been a custom that the finance minister addresses the RBI board, consisting of RBI Governor and existing four deputy governors, after the budget. The meeting has been scheduled for February 14 where she would be addressing the board members and talk about announcements made in the Budget to perk up growth hit by three waves of COVID-19, sources said. The Budget 2022-23 presented earlier this month estimates a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 11.1 per cent. The government expects this growth to be fuelled by a massive capital spending programme outlined in the Budget with a view to crowd-in private investment by reinvigorating economic activities and creating demand. The finance minister raised capital expenditure (capex) by 35.4 per cent for the financial year 2022-23 to Rs 7.5 lakh crore to continue the public investment-led recovery of the pandemic-battered economy. The capex this year is pegged at Rs 5.5 lakh crore. The spending on building multimodal logistics parks, metro systems, highways, and trains is expected to create demand for the private sector as all the projects are to be implemented through contractors. With regard to borrowing, the government plans to borrow a record Rs 11.6 lakh crore from the market in 2022-23 to meet its expenditure requirement to prop up the economy. This is nearly Rs 2 lakh crore higher than the current year's Budget estimate of Rs 9.7 lakh crore. Even the gross borrowing for the next financial year will be the highest-ever at Rs 14,95,000 crore as against Rs 12,05,500 crore Budget Estimate (BE) for 2021-22. Fiscal deficit -- the excess of government expenditure over its revenues -- is estimated to come down to 6.4 per cent of GDP next year as against 6.9 per cent pegged for the current fiscal ending March 31. The Reserve Bank is likely to maintain the status quo on the key policy rate in its next bimonthly monetary policy to be announced on Thursday in view of elevated level of inflation. Experts, however, are of the opinion that RBI's monetary policy committee (MPC) may change the policy stance from 'accommodative' to 'neutral' and tinker with the reverse repo rate as part of the liquidity normalization process. The MPC has been mandated by the government to keep the inflation in the range of 2-6 per cent.
Source: Business Standard
Johri says the rationalisation exercise would involve restructuring of the rates. It may involve a review of exemptions. And in the bargain, correction of inversions, whatever is left. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) will focus on scrutiny and audit of goods and services tax returns in the coming year, and ease compliances for Special Economic Zones, its chairman Vivek Johri told ET's Anuradha Shukla and Deepshikha Sikarwar in an interview. Edited excerpts: What is the roadmap ahead for exemptions that still remain within customs?
Source: Economic Times
Cambodia is keen to establish bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) with major trading partners, including Japan, its commerce ministry has said. Cambodia exported $1.752 billion worth of goods to Japan in 2021, a year-on-year (YoY) increase of 8.4 per cent, according to data from the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), which said twoway trade volume reached $2,332 million. Cambodia imported $580 million worth of products from the East Asian nation—a rise of 19.7 per cent over the figure a year before, the report said. This made Cambodia’s trade surplus with Japan at $1,172 million, decreasing $40 million from 2020. JETRO listed garments and electrical and electronic components as key Cambodian exports to Japan; and machinery, electronics and high-tech products as the main imports. Lim Heng, vice president of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce, told a Cambodian newspaper that the FTA will boost trade activities between the two countries, particularly encouraging new investors from Japan and other countries to come to Cambodia to produce for exports to Japan. Cambodia has signed bilateral free trade agreements with China and South Korea and is in the process of negotiating FTAs with Japan, India, Mongolia, Canada and the United Kingdom to diversify markets and boost exports. The Ministry of Commerce has set up a working group to study and collect input from stakeholders and the private sector to develop strategies to maximise the benefits of implementing the free trade agreement to which Cambodia is a signatory.
Source: Fibre 2 Fashion
NRF, Hackett Associates share outlook on 2022 supply chain disruption Import volumes remain high and are likely to grow during the first half of 2022 – but not at the explosive pace seen last year, according to the most recent Global Port Tracker report. While the modest growth should provide a margin of relief at the nation’s congested container ports, the report from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates cautioned that experts expect ongoing disruptions throughout 2022. Lunar New Year factory closings in Asia this month will provide some temporary relief, said Hackett Associates founder Ben Hackett. But congestion continues to dog ports on both U.S. coasts, and the Port of Los Angeles alone has around 40 ships waiting to dock. As more ships arrive daily, unloading delays could run up to a month. “[B]backups cannot be erased quickly as long as terminals continue to face a lack of space brought on by the supply chain’s inability to efficiently transfer cargo out of the terminals to its end destinations. A shortage of equipment, worker availability and storage space at distribution centers and warehouses across the country remains problematic, as does the export of empty containers back to Asia,” he said. The fact that volumes aren’t falling reflects continued consumer demand, according to Jonathan Gold, NRF VP for supply chain and customs policy. “Last year set a new bar for imports, and the numbers remain high as consumers continue to spend despite Covid-19 and inflation,” he added U.S. ports covered by Global Port Tracker are expected to handle 13 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units – one 20-foot container or its equivalent – during the first half of 2022, up 1.5% over the 12.8 million TEU handled during the same period in 2021. By contrast, the first half of 2021 saw a record 35.7% increase over the unusually slow first six months of 2020, when many Asian factories and U.S. stores were shut down because of the pandemic. The ports handled 2.09 million TEU in December 2021, the latest month for which final numbers are available. That was down 1.2% from November and down 1% year-over-year. Imports for all of 2021 totaled 25.8 million TEU, a 17.4% increase over 2020’s record high of 22 million TEU that was set despite the pandemic. Ports have not yet reported January numbers, but Global Port Tracker projected the month at 2.15 million TEU, up 4.4%-year over-year. February is forecast at 2.04 million TEU, up 8.7%; March at 2.12 million TEU, down 6.7%; April at 2.19 million TEU, up 2%; May at 2.27 million TEU, down 2.6%, and June at 2.26 million TEU, up 5.2%.
Source: Home Textiles Today
The apparel and textile exports from the south Asian island nation of Sri Lanka rose by 22.93 per cent year-on-year to $5.415 billion in 2021. While clothing exports increased by 25.7 per cent, exports of woven fabrics surged drastically by 99.84 per cent during the year. Exports to the UK shot up by 15.22 per cent during the 12-month period. In December 2021, the export earnings from apparel and textile improved by 17.88 per cent y-o-y to $531.05 million with a strong performance in exports of apparel (17.56 per cent) and woven fabrics (86.18 per cent), according to the provisional data released by the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB). Sri Lanka’s overall earnings from export were recorded at $15.12 billion from January to December 2021, including the estimated services data from October to December. Releasing the data, the country’s trade minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardena appreciated the contribution of exporters to the economy, despite the unprecedented economic conditions they had to deal with and assured them of more support to reach a $20 billion target this year. At the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2021 organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) in December 2021, Hirdaramani Group director Aroon Hirdaramani said that the Sri Lanka’s apparel sector targets exports worth $8 billion by 2025 by raising investment in local supply chains. Hirdaramani said only around half of Sri Lankan garment exports qualified for the generalised scheme of preferences plus (GSP+) tax concessions due to the rules of origin criteria, which concerns whether the clothing is sufficiently originating from the country applying for concessions.
Source: Fibre 2 Fashion
The government has decided in principle to implement the Textile and Apparel Policy 2020-25 after reaching consensus among stakeholders over cash subsidy for lower utility rates with the aim to boost production and exports of value-added textile products. A formal decision in this regard was taken in the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet. The policy is expected to be presented in the next cabinet meeting for approval. An official source privy to the meeting told Dawn that it was decided that concessionary tariff on electricity and gas will be provided to processing industries only. However, it was decided that a separate policy will be worked out for the captive power plants in consultation with the Commerce Division. As per the decision, proper work will be made on evolving competitive energy prices, while taking into account the regional countries. The working will be presented in the budgetary documents along with an allocation of amounts in the upcoming budget. The proposed policy, which will be the third such plan, estimates three scenarios including measures that will lift the textile and clothing exports to a minimum of $15.7 billion and a maximum of $20.8bn by end of the year 2025. The policy is laden with measures to tackle issues confronting the textile sector amid Covid-19 that has resulted in supply chain disruptions, affected global prices of commodities hitting trade adversely. It also addresses the issues of the withdrawal of SRO-1125 and cost of doing business. Furthermore, the policy should attract domestic and foreign investment in the textiles value chain and the development of value-added sectors, with prime focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). However, the incentives only focus on reducing the cost of doing business in existing industries and no specific link is proposed to either enhance exports or expand production lines. The past policies only subsidised export proceeds instead of widening the production line. The textile and clothing industries are operating at full capacity to meet buyers’ demands. Under the policy, the government will continue supply of subsidised electricity and lower rates for the supply of RLNG and system gas. The government will also allocate for payments under the Drawback of Local Taxes and Levy (DLTL) scheme. Currently, the government provides cash subsidy under the DLTL scheme launched by the previous government. It was also decided in principle to bring no change in the existing Export Finance Scheme (EFS) and Long Term Financing Facility (LTFF) schemes. It is also under consideration to revive LTFF and refinance scheme for SMEs and indirect exporters. Textile machinery and spare parts, accessories, dyes, and chemicals will also be included in LTFF schemes of the State Bank of Pakistan. Similarly, a brand development fund will be launched besides revitalising the Pakistan Textile City Ltd (PTCL) and Karachi Garment City Ltd (KGCL). Special Economic Zone status will be granted to PTCL and KGCL.
Source: The Dawn
Portuguese textile and clothing exports in 2021 recorded a record 5.419 billion euros, up 16.5% compared to 2020 and 3.9% above the pre-pandemic year of 2019, the sector association announced on Wednesday. According to the Textile and Clothing Association of Portugal (ATP) in a statement, “contributing to this excellent result were the exports of knitted garments and home textiles”. Knitted garments exported €2.336 billion, up €193 million (+9%) compared to 2019, while home textiles exported €763 million, up €112 million compared to 2019, representing growth of 17%. In contrast, woven garments “failed to recover from the effects of the pandemic”, exporting €796 million, down €189 million compared to 2019, registering a 19% drop. In terms of export destinations for the sector, France reinforced its second place in the ‘ranking’ and was the market with the largest increase in absolute terms, with an increase of 119 million euros (equivalent to +18%). The French market now accounts for 15% of total textiles and clothing exports. The US was the non-EU destination that grew the most, with an increase of 107 million Euros (+31.5%), and now represents 8% of the sector’s total exports. Conversely, Spain, although continuing to lead the table of the sector’s main export destinations, was the one that suffered the biggest drop: minus 220 million euros, or - 14%. If, in 2019, the Spanish market represented 31% of the total, in 2021 its weight fell to 25%. According to the ATP, whose analysis is based on international trade in goods data released today by Portugal’s National Statistics Institute (INE), in 2021 the sector’s trade balance had a positive balance of 1.168 billion euros, with a coverage rate of 127%.
Source: Macau Business
