The Synthetic & Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council

MARKET WATCH 27 SEP 2017

NATIONAL

INTERNATIONAL

Govt mulls 3-month RoSL rate extention

The government is likely to extend the rate of the remission of state levies (RoSL) under the duty drawback scheme available to garments exporters in the pre-goods and services tax (GST) period by at least three months through December in a bid to support the labour-intensive sector that has witnessed a slowdown in export in recent months. The revenue department recently conveyed its decision to trim the RoSL rate to 0.7% of the freight-on-board value from October 1, versus 2.9-3.9% now, sources said. The government is likely to extend the rate of the remission of state levies (RoSL) under the duty drawback scheme available to garments exporters in the pre-goods and services tax (GST) period by at least three months through December in a bid to support the labour-intensive sector that has witnessed a slowdown in export in recent months. “Some exporters have been demanding that the status quo be maintained until March next year. However, taking into account the stress the sector is going through due to a rupee appreciation and subdued overseas demand, at least three months’ relaxation may be considered. But the revenue department hasn’t yet decided on it,” a senior government official told FE. The revenue department recently conveyed its decision to trim the RoSL rate to 0.7% of the freight-on-board value from October 1, versus 2.9-3.9% now, sources said. This led to the demand from exporters to maintain the current rates till at least March 2018, which, a some in the government believe, could be hard to offer. So, said the official, an extension of the current rate for at least three more months may be considered primarily for two reasons: The textile and garment sector employs around 3.2 crore people, mostly women, and exports have plunged — from a rise of almost 32% in April to a fall of nearly 12% in July. The RoSL, under which garment exporters get refunds from the Centre against all the levies they pay at the state level, was the most important scheme (with fiscal significance for the government) in the Rs 6,000-crore garments package announced by the government last year to create 1 crore more jobs, Rs 78,000 crore in additional investments and $30 billion more exports over a three-year period. Following the introduction of GST, the government had initially cut the RoSL rate to a uniform 0.39% up to September 2017, against the pre-GST levels of 2.9-3.9%, arguing most of the state levies — including central sales tax — were scrapped in the GST regime. Only two state levies (value-added tax on petroleum products and electricity charges) would continue under the GST regime as well, on the basis of which the 0.39% interim refund structure was based, a senior government official had then told FE. Garment exporters, however, protested and requested the finance ministry to restore the earlier RoSL rate, saying the reduction would adversely impact apparel exports. Consequently, the government on August 1 announced the restoration of the pre-GST RoSL rate up to the end of September. The government has budgeted Rs 1,555 crore for the RoSL scheme in 2017-18, compared with Rs 400 crore a year before. The low allocation last year was due to the fact that the scheme was announced in late June last year and notified in around August. Ashok G Rajani, chairman, Apparel Export Promotion Council, said: “Garment exports will decline if the status quo is not maintained, both in case of duty drawback and RoSL. As such a strong rupee has adversely affected us and demand in key markets still remains fragile. The government should extend the current transition rates till March 31, 2018, to instil confidence in the sector, ensure a smooth transition into GST and also for sustaining the employment in the sector.” In the absence of encouraging drawback and RoSL rates, exports will further witness a sharp decline just ahead of the peak festival season when the industry was expecting recovery, he added. He said even the new all industry rates (AIR) for garments is fixed at 2%, against 7.7% drawback available until now. Apparel exports had been registering double-digit growth since the start of the disbursement of RoSL (around December last year). During March and April, garment exporters were able to increase production by around 30% and employed at least 5% more workers during the same period, according to AEPC. However, they lost the momentum since June. Garment exports in July, the first month of the GST launch, dropped almost 12%, far worse than a 1.4% fall in the previous month, showed official data.

Source: Financial Express

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Govt mulls Rs 30,000-crore fund to help exporters under GST regime

The government is mulling a dedicated fund to expedite timely refund of taxes paid on input for export, to address liquidity woes of exporters under the new goods and services tax (GST) regime.  A corpus of Rs 20,000-30,000 crore is under consideration, to narrow the input tax credit cycle and facilitate their working capital requirements. “It is in the initial stage of discussion that a designated fund be set up to help exporters with liquidity, as outbound shipments are already under stress,” said a government official. He added the matter was discussed last week in the Hasmukh Adhia-led committee, set up to address exporter concerns under GST. If approved by the panel, the proposal would go to the GST Council. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will take a meeting of the Council next week through video conferencing.  Ajay Sahai, director-general of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, said such a fund would address the problem of 90 per cent of exporters. “We have, in fact, recommended an electronic wallet facility for refund purposes. But, that might take time, as GST Network (the new levy’s information technology backbone) is already under stress,” he said. The extension of return filing deadline has added to the anxiety of exporters, as they fear working capital might get stuck for a longer while. A dedicated fund could help in this.  Another solution being considered is completely exempting imported inputs that do not face basic Customs duty from Integrated GST (IGST). Exporters have to pay IGST on import of goods and then claim refunds based on their scrips under the new tax system.  A decision is likely soon, with worry of a slowing economy and job creation. Growth in gross domestic product slumped to a three-year low of 5.6 per cent in the first quarter (April-June) of this financial year. Exporters claim refunds worth Rs 65,000 crore in the July-October period are stuck, but the government has denied this. In the Adhia panel meeting last week, various methods of resolving the issue of blockage of funds for exporters were discussed. The committee met exporters from eight sectors, who made detailed presentations. Authorities at state governments and the Centre were asked to clear the pending refund claims of central excise and value added tax for the pre-GST period, to give quick relief to exporters. Despite all these complaints, export rose 10.3 per cent in August from a year before, up from 3.9 per cent in July. However, exporters say their order books are down and this would show on figures of outbound shipment in the coming months.

Source: Business Standard

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Centre to set up regulatory review committee to push industrial growth

The Centre will soon set up a regulatory review committee to look at issues inhibiting industrial growth and propose ways to get the growth momentum back. Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu, in a meeting with top industry associations including CII, FICCI, Assocham and PHD Chamber on Tuesday, also decided to put in place a monitoring mechanism to track domestic and foreign investment proposals in collaboration with States.  “We had a useful, productive and forward looking meeting with various industry chambers to find out what we can do together to push growth to a higher trajectory,” Prabhu told the media after the meeting. The meeting was also attended by Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian. “The meeting looked at how to get the growth momentum back and boost confidence of industry in India. Once confidence builds up, investments will increase,” said RV Kanoria, Past President, FICCI, who attended the meeting. The regulatory review committee will be headed by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Secretary Ramesh Abhishek and also include members from the industry. “The effort will be to look at regulatory issues affecting industry and take steps to increase ease of doing business,” a government official told BusinessLine. The Minister will also hold a separate meeting with the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector to address their specific problems including access to credit.

Tackling excess capacity

The industry has also been asked to suggest ways to utilise the excess capacity in the industry which is currently estimated at an average 26 per cent. “The government realises that increasing capacity utilisation of the industry, currently at around 74 per cent, is important to boost performance. This can be done through domestic demand creation or by increasing exports. The industry has been asked to give sector-wise proposals on the matter,” a government official told BusinessLine. The Commerce and Industry Ministry will also start receiving regular feedback from the industry on the ground level situation, which will be built into the ranking of States’ ease of doing business. Under the Invest India initiative of the DIPP, a monitoring mechanism will be put in place to track proposals for domestic and foreign investments in order to fast-track them by working in collaboration with States, the official added.

Source: Business Line

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Exporters to take up quick GST refund issue with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tomorrow

Exporters are likely to seek a uniform job rate of 5% in GST regime, which was introduced on July 1. Exporters plan to take up the issue of quick refunds, a uniform goods and services tax on job work and concerns of small and medium enterprises when they meet finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday. “The minister wants to know industry’s concerns about GST,” said a person aware of the stakeholder consultation, adding that the meeting is a precursor to the GST Council meeting on October 6.  Exporters are likely to seek a uniform job rate of 5% in GST regime, which was introduced on July 1. “Job work for some sectors like handicrafts and carpets is complex.So many processes are involved and the credit flows between the exporter and the job worker. So the government does not get any revenue from this transaction,” the person said. Exporters could reiterate the need of fast-tracking the refund process to improve their liquidity situation. At a meeting with revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia last week, exporters had said that Rs 65,000 crore could get stuck in the July-October period if the current mechanism of refunds for GST continues. This amount was disputed by the government later. Exporters flagged their concerns over the liquidity crunch and the loss of competitiveness of India’s exports on account of the refund process.

Source: The Economic times

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Textiles give tourism a fillip in the state

The scenic locations and numerous temples located across Tamil Nadu that embody heritage have definitely been the key factors in attracting tourists to the state. The tourist inflow to the state is so much that TN has been on the top of the list of states that attract maximum domestic tourists for the third consecutive year. Meanwhile, the state's textile tourism is something that has been seeing a steady growth, of late. On World Tourism Day, today, experts in this field share with us their thoughts on how the textile industry is contributing to the state's tourism. A large number of people who are part of textile tourism are export buyers and they frequently visit places likes Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Chennimalai, Erode, etc., say observers. "Erode and Chennimalai are best known for blankets, table linens, etc. These buyers come for textile machinery to Coimbatore. So, when there's a good inflow of such people, the message gets spread through word of mouth about the textile heritage these places possess," begins Sreemathy Mohan, who organises textile trails and is a researcher of the state's textile heritage. The availability of handloom, organic cotton and sungudi also attract a lot of textile enthusiasts. Says Sreemathy, "Organic cotton is available in places like Pollachi, Negamam and Vadambacheri. Negamam cotton saris, especially, are very famous. When they make organic cotton saris, they use natural dyes. So, people who are very environment-conscious go for it. There's a big market for this in Europe also. Meanwhile, in places around Madurai, it is sungudi fabric which is famous. A lot of people who visit the temples around Madurai also drop in at the units where they make sungudi saris. They are specially made by a segment of the Saurashtrian community called Pattunool Karar. The art was kind of lost for some time, but now it's in revival mode. The saris are dyed in a special way. They tie up the saris in small knots and dye them. When they open the knots after dyeing, there would be white knots wherever they had put the knots. So, there are about 8,000 to 9,000 dots on one single sari. That's the specialty of sungudi saris. A lot of people come to Madurai to watch these people make sungudi saris. And that adds to the number of textile tourists in the state. And Kancheepuram is another favourite destination of sari buyers. There's a good difference in the price of saris if you buy directly from Kancheepuram. So, many people who buy for weddings go and buy directly from weaving societies in Kancheepuram." With its rich textile traditions and heritage, trails are regularly organised to many of these places. Sreemathy herself organised a trail two months ago. "It was a one-day trip. When such trails are organised, we take the participants to a weaver's place and show them the techniques of handloom saris and help them buy saris. We also take them to a temple, take them to a place where Kancheepuram idlis are made, etc. It gives them a complete feel of the city," shares Sreemathy. Agreeing with Sreemathy is TN Venkatesh, managing director of Co-optex. He says, "The main idea behind such trails is to make people appreciate handloom. We have been doing these trails for the last one year. And we've taken people to Kancheepuram, Arani, Madurai and Thanjavur. Interestingly, most of them are young textile enthusiasts and students, and they all come from places as far as Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad. Apart from domestic tourists, there's a good inflow of foreign tourists as well to explore the heritage of sari-making in Tamil Nadu. Deepa Krishnan, founder of a tour-organising company, says, "We work in the inbound tourism segment, that is, for overseas visitors to India. We run textile trails all over India, including Tamil Nadu. For most of the first-time visitors to India, their interests lie in the textiles of Rajasthan and Gujarat, where these trails have been running well for many years alongside a highly developed tourism sector. There are several non-profits that have opened up textile museums, and which conduct multi-day residential workshops for these tourists. Alongside this, the facilities for accommodation and guide services are also well developed. In south India, textile trails are a more recent phenomenon. In Tamil Nadu, the main centres for our textile trails are Chennai (to visit Kancheepuram, usually as a one-day trip, and to visit Kalakshetra), Pondicherry (where there are diverse crafts and textiles in the Auroville community, including indigo dyeing, bamboo, leather work, screen printing, etc), and Chettinad (to see the Athangudi tiles and the Chettinad weaves). In Tamil Nadu, our earliest trail with interest in crafts and textiles was in 2014-15, when we had a group of 13 American tourists who visited the Chettinad region (and also went to Rajasthan). Since then, we have had a steady stream of guests coming to Tamil Nadu usually these are not first-time visitors, but tourists who come back for deeper explorations."

Source : PTI

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Textile bill takes jibe at BJP for bringing in GST

Surat: A sale invoice issued by a textile firm in the city has gone viral on social media. It has BJP's lotus symbol and a punchline: 'Kamal ka phool hamari bhool'. The bill is doing rounds in the textile markets in the city and other parts of the state. The portion of the bill that mentions the shop address and the name of the proprietor has been cropped. Textile traders are unhappy with the Centre and the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Council for failing to address their genuine demands regarding GST. The entire traders' community in the market is unhappy with the government. The business has been badly affected ever since GST was implemented. The bill is just an example of a trader who is cursing himself for giving his vote to the BJP," said leader of the Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association Devkishan Manghani.

Source: Times of India, Surat

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Textile MSMEs to be severely affected under new duty drawback rates: SIMA

New Delhi:  With the government’s notification on new duty drawback rates, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the textile sector fear severe implications, Southern India Mills Association informed. SIMA Chairman P Nataraj in a press statement said that the sector is aleady grappling with several issues including compliance complications under the new tax regime.The revised duty drawback rates will further add to the woes of the sector and bring down its capacity to face the global compeition. Also MSME body Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) raised similar concerns over the new duty drawback rates. TEA informed that he reduction in drawback rate to knitwear export sector from 7.6 to 2 per cent is more likely to have severe impact on the industry of the region. Explaining the worrisome situation, TEA said that the announcement has come as a shock to the exporters and manufacturers. There is great deal of anxiety regarding the losing of business to other rival countries including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia. The association raised that once the interest of the global market shifts away from India to other countries, it would be next to impossible to restore the position once India had in the global market. The associations have written to the Finance Ministry urging to reconsider the decision to reduce the duty drawback rate.

Source: Knn India

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Textile stocks tumble as govt announces duty on export

Textile stocks slumped on the bourses on Tuesday as the government announced that it will levy a new duty drawback rate on garment exports from the country. Bombay Dyeing was the top losing stock on the bourses among the textile stocks, down by 5% on BSE. Other textile stocks including Arvind Limited and Welspun India lost nearly 2% each on the bourses in the intraday trade on Tuesday. The stock of Arvind hit an intraday low of Rs 358.65 per share on BSE. The stock hit an intraday high of 366.20 per share, slightly higher than its opening price on BSE. At 1058 hours, Arvind was trading at Rs 365.30 per share, down by 0.23% on BSE. Welspun India hit an intraday low of Rs 66.50 per share and an intraday high of Rs 67.60 per share on BSE on Tuesday. At 1058 hours, the stock was trading at Rs 66.70 per share, down by 1.55% on BSE. Meanwhile, S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 31,474.64 level, down by 151.99 points or 0.48% and NSE Nifty was trading at 9,816.75 level, down by 55.85 level or 0.57% during Tuesday’s trade.

Source: India Infoline News Service

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Textile industry woes: Bhiwandi powerlooms continue to struggle with issues post GST

EVEN AS the textile industry in Bhiwandi, the powerloom capital of Maharashtra, crawls back to life after the impact of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), it is still struggling to deal with several issues such as capital, return filing and unsold stock. “The shutdown after GST has resulted in lower capital with weavers who have exhausted their earnings during the shutdown. With little left for buying raw material, not many are able to restart the looms to full scale,” said Tahir Momin, a former MLA whose family owns around 500 looms. He said a large part of the textile industry in Bhiwandi was busy figuring out the three different tax returns to be filed. “We are not well-versed with the new tax system and neither are we comfortable with technology. Most of my time is spent trying to understand the return filing system,” said Momin. Ehsan Ansari, another weaver, said even as the government had relaxed the tax on job works or intermediary works involved in the conversion of yarn to cloth, challenges remain as the sale of cloth was yet to pick up. “Dealers and traders are unwilling to buy from weavers without a GST number even if their (weavers’) annual income is below Rs 20 lakh. Business is dull as most of us are sitting with unsold stock,” said Ansari, who has so far restarted 60 per cent of his 700 looms. Since GST came into force on July 1, an entire ecosystem of the textile industry — weavers, technicians, daily wage workers and labourers — was hit as looms were forced to shut down. As an immediate aftereffect, around five lakh powerlooms closed in Bhiwandi in 20 days, according to estimates by owners or “master weavers”. The industry, which had remained exempt from taxation since Independence, reeled under the impact of GST regime. Now, the master weavers have to pay taxes for buying yarn — 18 per cent on man-made fibre yarn and 5 per cent on cotton yarn. They had raised concerns over the tax on job works —5 per cent on cotton yarn and 18 per cent on man-made fibre yarn. On August 7, the GST Council decided to cut it and adopt a uniform rate of 5 per cent. Despite the relaxation, the looms are still struggling to go back to normalcy. Bhiwandi’s textile industry is decentralised where master weavers own powerlooms but sublet most work to contractors. The conversion of yarn to cloth requires at least 10 levels of work, including transport, sizing, warping, weaving, mending, folding and packaging, each needing special set of skills. “We are encountering several challenges as we go. Accounting has become one of the biggest challenges,” said Momin. State GST Commissioner Rajeev Jalota said workshops are not being conducted anymore but regional offices are helping traders with filing. “We are helping traders with the process. Anybody having trouble can approach us and we will help them. We are also appealing to local trade associations to help traders and weavers,” he said.

Source: The Indian Express

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Has Demonetisation And GST Narcotised Indian Apparel Industry?

According to a report by Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency of India (ICRA), disruptions caused by demonetisation and transition to GST regime has narcotised the Indian apparel and fabric industry. The Indian textiles and apparel industry which accounts for almost 24 per cent of the world’s spindle capacity and 8 per cent of global rotor capacity has been struggling due to the impacts of demonetisation and goods and services tax (GST). According to a report by Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency of India (ICRA), disruptions caused by demonetisation and transition to GST regime has narcotised the Indian apparel and fabric industry. The production declined by one per cent in the first quarter of fiscal 2017-18 in the highly fragmented fabric segment, which witnessed a de-growth — a phase of planned and equitable economic contraction — of two per cent in the previous fiscal. The report also adds that ‘India's apparel exports continue to remain volatile with the global trade not showing any signs of improvement amid subdued demand trends in the key importing countries’. Shweta Sharma, Founder, Ombrelane.com, told BW Businessworld, “GST rollout will likely have a negative impact on the fashion/textile Industry in the short term shopping for clothes will become expensive and is bound to have an impact on the top line. However, in the longer term, things should smoothen out and fashion industry should benefit from a more efficient value chain and streamlined tax structure.” Stating the causes for this volatility and de-growth, the report says, ‘Apart from the demand pressures, high raw material prices and currency movements continue to weigh on the industry's performance, which has been visible in the profitability of manufacturers over the past three-quarters.’ “Demonetization had an impact on both organized and unorganized sectors of the fashion industry. In the short term, both offline and online retailers experienced a dip in sales however, at the same time adoption of cards and digital wallets increased. While demonetization brought a temporary slump in the fashion market, the effects seem to have already been neutralized,” added Sharma. The textiles industry has been a major contributor to the national economy in terms of direct and indirect employment generation and net foreign exchange earnings. The sector contributed about 14 per cent to industrial production, 4 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP), and 27 per cent to the country's foreign exchange inflows, the previous year. The employment to over 45 million people also rests on it. Thus, reviving the sector must be on the government’s priority list.

Source: Business world

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CITI disappointed with substantial reduction in duty drawback rates

Chairman of Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) Mr. Sanjay K. Jain has expressed his sheer disappointment over the announcement of substantially reduced duty drawback rates by the Centre for the entire textile value chain. In a communiqué to Tecoya Trend Mr. Jain said that the entire textile value chain is already suffering due to poor export performance due to high tariffs in most of the exporting countries preferential trade agreements with EU and USA better tax systems in textile competing countries etc. After agriculture textile is the only largest employment provider to the country which provides jobs not only to skilled semi-skilled illiterate people but also to the large scale marginal farmers who work on fields including poor independent women who has no other employment opportunity except textiles he pointed out. Mr. Jain said that Centre should have taken into consideration while announcing duty drawback rates that textiles’ exports has been stagnant since last three years around USD 37 Bn. The announcement is a severe blow to the industry which is already reeling under various critical issues for its survival. The inordinate delay in refund of GST to the exporters who have shipped their consignment in July is a great cause of working capital issue. He stated Centre last year had announced a special package for garments and included made-ups giving enhanced duty drawback rate and also ROSL (Refund of State Levies). However the present announcement of the government on duty drawback rates does not synchronize with the earlier government announcement of boosting exports and job creation. In the present announcement only the old drawback rates have been retained when Cenvat credit was availed without any change and also without getting into detailed calculation of blocked tax burden on each product Mr. Jain said. CITI further said that the industry was earlier enjoying exemption route drawback benefits and other export benefits which helped industry gain competitive edge over its competing Nations. However Bangladesh Vietnam Cambodia etc. have achieved significant growth in garment exports during the last few years while India export is stagnated at US $ 16 to 17 billion per year. Mr. Jain further reiterated that government should immediately re-draw drawback rates applicable for textiles refund all the blocked embedded taxes levies and accumulated input tax credit on fabric especially the processed fabric. He further stated that the cost of dyes and chemicals accounts 30 to 40% of the processing charges. Dyes and chemicals attract 18 or 28% GST making 3 to 5% accumulation of input tax credit as the fabric or processing job work attracts only 5% GST. He added that the service tax has been increased 15 to 18% and several services have been brought under tax net under GST. The old and new drawback rates CITI felt that at yarn stage the actual drawback rate would work out to 2 to 2.5% and at grey fabric stage the same would work out around 3% while at finished fabric garments and made-ups would work out to more than 5%. The exports will suffer very seriously and dwindle down sharply. He suggested that the Government must ensure that no taxes are exported and to protect the jobs of several millions of people in the textile industry Mr. Jain urged the Government to extend the existing drawback benefits till the GST anomalies and problems are fully sorted out and also the realistic drawback rates refunding all blocked embedded taxes and levies including accumulated input tax credit at fabric stage are fully taken into consideration.

Source: Tecoya Trend

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Be an early bird, avoid last-minute rush’: GSTN Chairman

GSTN Chairman Ajay Bhushan Pandey says the network can handle a lakh users per hour and that this capacity is ‘scalable’An IAS officer who is in the hot seat today is Ajay Bhushan Pandey, the newly appointed Chairman of the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), as he continues to hold charge as CEO of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Pandey took office on September 8, succeeding Navin Kumar at a time when the GST regime was just two months and eight days old in the country, and struggling with teething problems. Ask him whether there is any political interference in the functioning of GSTN given that all States are involved, and at the Centre not only the finance ministry but the Prime Minister’s Office is said to be closely monitoring developments, and he says: “There is absolutely no undue interference. GSTN is a great example of cooperative federalism where Centre and all States are working together practically on a daily basis and resolving all issues to provide convenient, transparent and efficient taxation services to people.” So what are the challenges before GSTN? According to Pandey there are two: First, to build people’s confidence into the new system where a compliant taxpayer goes by the maxim, ‘Pay, File, and Enjoy’; second, the GSTN will have to ensure in the coming months that other returns and services such as registration, GSTR1, GSTR-2, GSTR-3, refunds, life cycle management, are available in a convenient manner to lakhs of taxpayers across the country. But, what about the technical glitches experienced in the GST tax portal? “I would not prefer to term them as glitches. What we need to appreciate is that we have moved from a distributed tax regime which consisted of 37 different systems comprising 35 States/UTs and one system of CBEC and another one of service tax to a new, single, unified online tax system.”

Teething issues

 “During migration of such gigantic scale, there are bound to be a few teething issues stemming from different legal requirements under the new regime such as periodicity of returns, formats of returns, behavioural patterns of users such as everybody preferring to file the return on the last day or non-familiarity with the new online tax system or habit of using human interface system for tax compliance, disinclination to use technology, etc.” Pandey believes that GSTN has been rolled out with sufficient preparedness and is capable of handling large volumes of return filing. “We have statistics to infer the same. Recently, on the last day of filing GSTR-3B of August, there (were) up to one lakh concurrent users per hour on the GSTN system for filing returns. This capacity is further scalable,” he stresses. But he is also quick to point out: “We do put a kind of temporary circuit breaker when the number of concurrent, in other words simultaneous, users reach around one lakh so that the system is not affected due to rush at the last minute.” When the system is running at the threshold of a circuit breaker, any new web request may have to wait for a few minutes in the queue, says Pandey. An electrical engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur, and holder of MS and PhD degrees in computer science from the University of Minnesota, he adds: “So that’s not a glitch. However, there could also be some issues due to the peculiar nature of dealings and varieties of transaction by users. We have categorised them and will sort them soon.” Given the panic being created among businesses and complaints regarding migration, Pandey says “The best approach for the return filers is to not to wait till the last day. Be an early bird and avoid last minute rush.” What about integration of manpower? He says: “The roles of GSTN and tax administration staff of Centre and States are clearly defined under the GST laws. They, being complementary to each other, together will provide a convenient, transparent, and efficient tax regime.”

Data protection

While Pandey, who has been steering the Aadhaar project since 2010, and is also an expert member on the Justice BN Srikrishna Committee on data protection framework, has been dealing with questions on data protection under UIDAI, one cannot help but ask about data protection under GSTN.“Yes, data security and data protection have both been our paramount concern. Under the GSTN, data is absolutely secure by law as well as our practice,” he says. Some have been asking for the GSTN number to be made the core number and Aadhaar to be subsumed within it. Is it going to happen? “There is no such proposal. The objective of Aadhaar is to (enable) a resident to prove his identity anywhere any time. GSTN provides this facility to the resident to prove his identity when he needs services such as GSTN registration.”

Source: Business Line

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Odisha’s demand met: GST rates on handloom goods reduced;

BHUBANESWAR The Goods and Services Tax rate on handicraft and handloom products has been slashed by the GST council due to demands of Odisha government official sources said. Odisha Finance Minister S B Behera said the GST on Sabai ropes and cups and plates stitched from Sal/Soali leaves has been reduced from 18 per cent to 5 per cent while the tax rates on idols made of clay which was 28 per cent have been exempted. Behera said that Khadi fabric sold through Khadi and Village Industries Commission(KVIC) and KVIC certified institutions/ outlets have also been exempted from tax. The tax rate on idols of stone has also been reduced from 28 per cent to 12 per cent. The tax rates on different handicraft goods were 28 per cent 18 per cent or 12 per cent under GST. Behera said that Odisha had been demanding tax exemptions for handicraft and handloom goods. “In this regard Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to exempt handicrafts and handloom goods from GST ” Behera said. Behera himself had also written a letter to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to exempt handicraft and other goods under GST. Behera said he had also put forth arguments in favour of exempting these goods in the meetings of the GST Council since the livelihood of the tribal and poor artisans depend on these goods. The finance minister said the demand of Odisha was also discussed in the 21st meeting of the GST Council held in Hyderabad. Considering the demands of Odisha the GST Council reduced the tax rate on other handicraft goods from 18 per cent to 12 per cent he added.

Source: Tecoya Trend

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ADB lowers India’s 2017 growth forecast to 7%

New Delhi: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has lowered its 2017 growth forecast for India to 7% from its July estimate of 7.4%, reflecting “short-term disruptions” such as last year’s demonetization and this year’s implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) that the bank expects to “dissipate”. In a Tuesday update to its Asian Development Outlook 2017, the bank increased its growth forecast for Asia from 5.7% to 5.9% on the back of China’s better-than-expected performance and a revival in global trade and strong growth in the developed world. It expects the good news to last into 2018, for which it increased the region’s growth forecast to 5.8% from 5.7%. The bank upped its forecast for China to 6.7% in 2017, from the previously estimated 6.5%. It also increased next year’s forecast for China to 6.4% from 6.2%. In India’s case, ADB expects “medium-term benefits” from GST. It expects growth next year to pick up to 7.4%, lower than the previously estimated 7.6%. On Monday, India announced the revival of the economic advisory council to advise the Prime Minister on the economy. India’s growth fell to a three-year low of 5.7% in the April-June quarter. Some of the decline was caused by the lingering effects of demonetization and the implementation of GST (which are expected to ease). Private investment, meanwhile, has shown no signs of recovery. Public spending, however, has been on a strong footing as the government announced its annual budget for 2017-18 a month earlier this year on 1 February to enable “front-loading” of expenditure. Government officials expect this to benefit the economy while any decision on deviating temporarily from its fiscal consolidation path will only be taken at the time of budget-making for the next financial year. Economists suggested that 7% growth may be within reach this financial year. “We have also lowered our economic growth forecast to 7% recently from the earlier forecast of 7.4%. The aftershocks of demonetization and the temporary disruption caused by implementing goods and service tax should start easing now, but the impact of these unprecedented measures are difficult to gauge,” said D.K. Joshi, chief economist at rating agency Crisil. Joshi added that one needs to constantly re-evaluate emerging economic data in the current circumstances. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in its interim economic outlook on 20 September that the Indian economy is projected to grow at a lower than expected rate of 6.7% this fiscal due to the “transitory effects” of demonetization and GST implementation, news agency PTI reported on 21 September. The growth rate projected in June was 7.3%. The Paris-based think tank also revised downwards its estimate for India’s growth in 2018-19 to 7.2% from its estimate in June of 7.7%.HDFC Bank chief economist Abheek Barua said one sector that needs supportive measures is small and medium enterprises (SMEs). “The environment for SMEs to do business got impacted because of the teething troubles of the GST system. Considering that SMEs are major employment generators and many are exporters, we need to address this on an urgent basis,” Barua said.

Source: Livemint.com

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Global exports prospects revised sharply; why India must not miss this boat

The sharp revision in global export prospects for 2017—the WTO has raised its growth projections for trade volumes from 2.4% earlier to 3.6%, and trade grew at a mere 1.3% in 2016—represent an opportunity that India cannot afford to miss. Indeed, the changed projections, reflecting a stronger growth in both the US and China, are even stronger for Asia where the IMF is now projecting a 6.4% growth in 2017 exports as compared to a mere 1.8% in 2016. Given the role of exports in raising GDP growth, particularly manufacturing, the prospects look alluring. More so when you consider that exports from India have actually contracted in three of the last seven years; in two of them, they grew by around 5% and it was only in two that growth was appreciable—dollar exports grew by over 40% in FY11 and by nearly 22% the year after. Whether India will be able to capitalise on the boom will depend on several things, though the fact of the growth step-up will obviously help. If you look at textiles and apparel, India’s exports grew from $30 billion in 2011 to just $34 billion in 2016, while those of Vietnam grew from $20 billion to $32 billion and Bangladesh’s apparel exports rose from $19 billion to $28 billion. Certainly, the fact that the rupee is quite overvalued has played a factor in India’s exports slowing and factors like delays in GST credit are adding to the problem, but at a broad level, the problem is that India just isn’t competitive enough in labour-intensive exports like textiles and footwear since the bulk of its producers are small-scale units that don’t enjoy the kind of economies of scale that units in countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam have. That means, over the medium term, India’s exports strategy has to be based on a competitive exchange rate—that probably involves the central bank actively buying more dollars—as well as removing domestic hurdles in the form of, say, stifling labour laws or expensive/inefficient infrastructure. While all of that is in the medium- to long-term, were the government to completely free up agriculture exports, despite the current slump in prices, exports could pick up quite rapidly. Indeed, analysis by Shweta Saini and Ashok Gulati at ICRIER show that most agriculture commodities were export-competitive over the last decade—it is periodic export bans that prevented their sustained growth. Though global farm prices are much lower today, in the case of wheat, once the export ban was lifted in September 2011, exports rose to over $5 billion in 2012-13—between FY10 and FY13, total agriculture exports rose from $13 billion to $33 billion. So while India has to address domestic constraints for most exports, in the case of agriculture, the exports response could be much faster.

Source: Financial Express

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Arun Jaitley to inaugurate India-Afghan trade show today

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley along with Chief Executive of Afghanistan Abdullah Abdullah will inaugurate an India-Afghanistan Trade and Investment Show 'Passage to Prosperity' here today. The three-day event, sponsored by the US, will focus on better regional integration by strengthening economic ties between Afghanistan and India. The event will highlight recently signed agreements, showcase Afghan companies and Indian innovation, and launch a forthcoming single-sector event series. Special Charge d' affaires Afghanistan Ambassadr Hugo Llorens and Charge d' affaires US Embassy Mary Kay Carlson will also be present at the inauguration. The show will feature Afghan entities from the economic growth, agriculture, health, education, gender and energy sectors seeking trade and investment opportunities with India, along with CEOs from major Indian and US companies. Consumer goods from Afghanistan like carpets, gemstones, marble, saffron, dried fruits and nuts will also be on display. A senior US official said over 800 Indian companies have confirmed their participation in the trade and investment show, apart from around 240 Afghanistan vendors. The official confirmed that the 'Passage to Prosperity' show was a deliverable from the Heart of Asia conference and "certainly the relationship between Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as PM Modi's trip to Washington with President Donald Trump".He informed that diversified American conglomerate General Electric has "expressed interest in pursuing some ideas or atleast exploring opportunities in Afghanistan".The sixth edition of Heart of Asia conference, an annual regional gathering of Asian and other countries, was held in Amritsar in December last year. "There has always been a natural trade partnership with India and Afghanistan. This is an opportunity to help Afghanistan's private sector grow a bit... Unlike the other trade shows we have had in the past, this is not just a one- off event. We hope to gain some momentum and use this as a platform to work long term," the US official said. He said the US was exploring making the India-Afghanistan Trade and Investment Show an annual event and looking at Mumbai as the host next year, and confirmed that seven trade shows with Afghanistan have been held in India since 2014. "Afghanistan is working very hard as a government to bring in investors as much as possible to make it a better marketplace and certainly a more desirable place for their trade partners around the region," the official said, adding that although security in Afghanistan has been an issue, it has not hampered entrepreneurs interested in the nation to reach out and forge partnerships. Besides, the US official said "certain airlines or air cargo companies in India who are looking to go to Kabul to bring back carpets or food" and about 20 flights have run till now under the India-Afghanistan Direct Air Freight Corridor established on June 19.

Source: Business Line

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GST ‘a major roadblock’ to India-Bhutan trade ties

Indo-Bhutanese trade has been hit because of infrastructural constraints at the Jaigaon Land Custom Station,particularly after the implementation of GST. According to a senior CGST official, the volume of trade between India and Bhutan through Jaigaon has dropped since July. After the roll out of GST, clearances are required online, unlike the earlier system when it was manual. Located in the Alipurduar district of West Bengal, Jaigaon is the most important border trading point with Bhutan, as it caters to around 90 per cent of the bilateral trade. During FY-16, exports from India touched $469 million, while imports were at $281 million. According to the July-August 2017 newsletter put out by the Bhutan Chamber of Commerce & Industry, as many as 350 Bhutanese trucks were held up for over a week across the Phuentsholing border (on the Bhutan side) due to inadequate custom facilitation at the Jaigaon Land Custom Station. Though the number of stranded trucks at present is down to 100 with a waiting period of two-to-three days, the situation is far from normal. “Internet connectivity at Jaigaon is very poor. In some cases there is no connectivity for two-to-three days,” the official told BusinessLine. According to him, Nathu La, one of the three open trading border posts between China and India, is also witnessing a similar problem. Interim measuresAs an interim measure, Jaigaon was allowed to clear the goods manually and later update the data into the online Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system designed for filing GST claims. Initially allowed for a month, the provision was later extended till September 10. A delay in uploading the GST claims on the EDI system comes as a blow to exporters, who are already facing liquidity crunch due to delayed GST refunds. Hence CGST officials have proposed online clearance of goods at Siliguri GST and Custom Station, as nearly 90 per cent of goods heading to Jaigaon pass through Siliguri. “We have asked the Board of Central Excise and Customs [now CGST] to allow online clearance of goods at Siliguri, which has better connectivity. A manual copy can be procured and a telephonic confirmation can be taken at Jaigaon subsequently,” the official said. Using satellite internet services has also been proposed to help address the issue of connectivity.

Source : Business Line

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Telangana cotton farmers to flaunt ID cards with QR code

HYDERABAD: Cotton farmers in Telangana will soon be getting identity cards with a QR (Quick Response) code from the next procurement season. These ID cards will be accepted at the procurement centres of the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) when the farmers go there for selling their produce. A QR code captures unique information of an individual that can be read electronically by imaging devices like cameras and smartphones. The decision has been taken at a review meeting held here on Monday. “This will enable timely procurement of cotton in a transparent manner. This will help farmers avoid middlemen in the procurement process,” an official statement has said. The farmers will get the cards by October 10 so that they can use the cards from this season itself. The officials are building a database of cotton farmers in the State. C Parthasarathi, Secretary (Agriculture), asked the officials to cover all of the cotton sowing area. The data of cotton farmers will be uploaded in Mana Bhoomi Mana Panta

Source: Business Line

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This artisan-led apparel and accessories brand is providing employment to 500 Gujarati women

Since 1996, Okhai has been supporting local women artisans in the villages of Mithapur district in Gujarat by training them in the crafts of appliqué and embroidery. In the Okhamandal region of Gujarat, Tata Chemicals Society for Rural Development (TCSRD) is giving employment and hope to hundreds of women. The Okhamandal region, primarily a drought-ridden area where the local people are mostly dependent on agriculture for their sustenance, is now finding a new source of livelihood in the form women entrepreneurs. This is the story of Okhai, an e-commerce portal that offers handcrafted apparel and lifestyle products created by rural artisans from across India. Bringing out local talent What began as a small self-help group with a bunch of women from the Rabari tribe of the Mithapur district is now an apparel enterprise run by hundreds of local women of the region. The locals were skilled at making handicrafts and clothes with different ornamental needlework, kathidesigns, heer bharat, and beadwork. These women were supported by and brought together by TCSRD in 1996 under the name of Okhai. Over the years, Okhai has been training the local women artisans in the crafts of appliqué and embroidery. Artisans of Okhai specialise in appliqué work and embroidery. Their appliqué form is unique to this tribe and their mirror work technique is one of the sturdiest, says Kirti Poonia, who runs the initiative. The women of Okhai make these products from the comfort of their homes, giving them the opportunity to take care of their families and attend to their daily activities. These women are organised into groups of 20, under the leadership of one woman who coordinates and leads them. Each group is given a design template along with kits containing raw material and the needed paraphernalia. Each group follows the template and delivers the product to the team leader, who further passes it on to the design team located in Ahmedabad. Here, artists from prominent design schools come up with varying designs for these women every few weeks.

Empowering women

Okhai is an enterprise of 500 women who handcraft contemporary designs by using the traditional method of artwork that is indigenous to the tribes of Mithapur. As a brand, Okhai Handicrafts constitutes ladies’ wear, men’s wear, home décor products, and accessories. Okhai products use mirror work, patchwork, and embroidery created as a vibrant expression of the rural way of life, their rituals, and their legends. Okhai’s mission is to empower the women of these tribal areas and encourage women from less privileged backgrounds to acquire new skills to give them the self-confidence and self-esteem required to earn by their own industry and initiative and to enable them to carry this newly discovered skill and confidence into the wider world. The organisation has been making significant contributions towards generating livelihood for hundreds of rural artisans. They have contributed to improving the lives of the women artisans which, in turn, has helped improve their economic as well as social status. Okhai’s women artisans are now travelling out of their villages, they have the respect of their community, they are educating both sons and daughters, some have built concrete homes. When a woman brings money home, she buys the power to make family decisions and you can see that happening at Okhai — the artisans often tell me that they used to take money from their husbands, now they give money, says Kirti.

Way forward

In 2002, Alka Talwar, then TCSRD’s CSR head felt there needed to be a greater focus on the initiative, which was why in 2008, the organisation set up a public charitable trust called Okhai Centre for Empowerment which would focus on uplifting women by providing them with livelihood opportunities. “We saw potential in their craft, the desire for empowerment, and the willingness to work for it and knew that we had to provide them with a platform,” says Alka. Today, Okhai conducts training programmes in crafts, and awareness programmes for understanding of quality, colour theory, and contemporary designs.” One of the biggest problems in the handmade industry is that the value chain is not sustainable the profit margins are hardly evenly distributed. By making and selling on our own on our website, we have evolved from an NGO making products to an e-commerce fashion brand by the artisans themselves, says Kirti. “For many initial years the focus was on training and that’s why today our foundation is strong and our quality gives us the confidence to compete in the very competitive apparel industry,” she adds. Currently, most of Okhai’s sales are online on its own website, but it also has outlets in Mithapur, where the products are made, and in Ahmedabad and Jamshedpur.

Source: yourstory.com

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Bangladesh : Textile sector crying out for investment

Bangladesh's primary textile sector, an essential cog in the garment export wheel, has been witnessing a dearth of fresh investment for the last few years due to gas crisis and scarcity of bigger industrial land. Only five new spinning, three weaving and two dyeing mills with an investment of about Tk 1,300 crore were set up in the last four years, according to data from the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association. The textile sector needs heavy investment and bigger industrial plots to set up the plants. The primary textile sector indicates the strength of a country's garment sector as the millers and spinners supply the yarns and fabrics to the apparel manufacturers, who cater to the international clothing retailers. A more developed primary textile sector means shorter lead-time in the garment business as the apparel makers can purchase the raw materials from the local market. Currently, Bangladesh has 425 spinning, 790 weaving and 250 dyeing mills that have an investment of about Tk 50,000 crore tied up, according to BTMA data. With existing capacity, the primary textile sector can supply 90 percent of the raw materials for the knitwear and 40 percent for woven sector. The rest of the demand is met through imports mainly from China, India and Pakistan. Since the country's garment export is on the rise, so is the import of raw materials. In the first six months of the year, Bangladesh imported woven fabrics worth more than $2.11 billion and knitwear fabrics and yarn worth $527 million, up almost 15 percent year-on-year in both the categories. The import of fabrics is also rising as the garment manufacturers can now enjoy zero-duty benefit on export of apparel items to the EU and other major markets even if the garment is made from fabrics not manufactured in Bangladesh. “So, there is room for more investment in the sector. We need only gas connections and industrial plots,” said Monsoor Ahmed, secretary to the BTMA. At least five spinning mills cannot go into operation mainly due to a lack of gas connections, although the owners have constructed the factories by investing a lot of money, he said. The hike in gas prices every year is also another problem for the sector. The government raised the gas price to Tk 19.26 per cubic metre in 2016 from Tk 8.36 in the previous year for captive power plants. In 2015, the government had increased the gas price to Tk 8.36 from the previous rate of Tk 4.36 per cubic metre. The textile millers have demanded duty-free import of heavy fuel oil or furnace oil to keep their factories up and running. Currently, importers pay 35 percent duty to import the oil, which, they say, was too high for users. They said the tariff of gas was hiked 222 percent in the last two years, which was eating up the profitability of businesses as spinning, weaving, finishing and dyeing mills need uninterrupted gas supply. “We have already started talks with the government to make fuel oil import duty-free so that the primary textile sector can run well,” said Tapan Chowdhury, president of the BTMA. The government has not fixed the prices of liquefied natural gas yet although it was saying that its import would start from next year, he added. “If LNG price is fixed at a higher rate, the industrial sector might not be able to afford it.” The government plans to import 500 million cubic feet of gas a day (mmcfd) from the start of next year and another 500 mmcfd from the middle of 2018 to ride out the existing gas shortage.  “The time now is very much favourable to setting up new primary textile units,” said Razeeb Haider, managing director of Outpace Spinning Mills. One of the reasons is that the bank interest rate declined to a single digit after many years. “We have a lot of opportunities to diversify our business in the textile sector,” he said. Many factory owners have expanded their current operations as they cannot set up new units.

 

Source: The Daily Star

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Myanmar: Boost for cotton expected

Cotton production is likely to double after the government decided to restart textile factories, and its price is also expected to spike. WITH the re-opening of government textile factories this year, the demand for cotton is expected to rise and production likely to double, say traders. Since the start of the cotton production season, which runs from July to September, the governmentowned factories and private factories ordered up to 3 million viss. Traders sold out all their stock. The textile factories administered by the Ministry of Industry placed their orders, which also increased the cotton price to K3600 a viss (about 1.6 kg a viss). “In previous years, the government textile factories mostly stopped and didn’t run the mills. Last year, cotton production declined due to heavy rains in July, August and November. “The production was 12 million viss for the year. If the weather is good, this year’s production will reach 30 million viss. But we need to wait to see the weather in October,” the Myanmar Cotton and Cotton Products Merchants and Manufacturers Association’s secretary U Aung Myint told The Myanmar Times on September 24. He expected the demand to increase till the end of the season. Myanmar’s cotton production, one of Myanmar’s national strategic export crops, which usually takes place from July to March, faced difficulties accessing seeds. The cultivation season is already over, so negotiations with the agriculture department will begin. The issue comes from Lunn Kyaw from Kyaukse township and Shwe Taung from Wandwin township’s difficulties to provide seeds for cotton plantation and long-term crops. In Myanmar, there were 752,145 acres of cotton plantation for the 2014-2015 fiscal years 720,662 acres for the 2015-2016 fiscal years and 768,286 acres for the 2016-2017 fiscal years. As cotton is part of the national export strategy, and the textile and garment industry is also a top priority, local raw material is expected to be on high demand. Beside domestic use, cotton is also exported to China through border trade. It totalled 1.6 tonnes (US$3.5 million) in 2013-2014, and increased to 487.5 tonnes ($1.073 million) so far in the 2017-2018 fiscal year. “Half of the production goes to China, the rest answers local demand from textile factories,” said U Aung So director general of the Myanmar Trade Promotion under Ministry of Commerce. The cotton association faces several challenges, such as the difficulty to access quality seeds and the lack of labour force. The association currently plans to relocate to Nay Pyi Taw. Daw Tin Tin Shwe, general manager of the Panda Textile factory in Paleik city said her factory purchased about 800 to 1000 tonnes of A-grade cotton during fiscal year 2016-2017. And this year, the factory is expected to buy more than that amount if there is no disruption of their production due to labour protest. Many textile factories are now turning to locally produced cotton instead of procuring from abroad.

Source: The Myanmar Times

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USA : South Carolina could see bumper cotton crop this year

FLORENCE, S.C. — After rain damaged it in the last two years, this looks to be a bumper year for the South Carolina cotton crop, just as a Clemson University economist predicted before planting even began. Cotton, peanut and soybean producers in South Carolina will soon have aldicarb to use in their fight against insects and nematodes. Mike Jones, South Carolina cotton specialist housed at the Clemson Pee Dee Research and Education Center, said 250,000 acres of cotton were planted in the state this year, up from 190,000 last year. Jones said this year’s crop could produce record yields if the weather holds out. “Right now, we’re predicting 960 pounds per acre,” said Jones during the Clemson Pee Dee REC Field Day. “I’ve been driving around and talking with (Clemson) county agents in the cotton-growing counties. I haven’t seen nor heard of a bad crop in the state this year.” Jones credits this year’s bumper crop to the weather. “Summer temperatures were more moderate,” Jones said. “We’ve also gotten good, timely rainfall most of the growing season. Moderate temperatures and adequate rainfall, combined, have resulted in favorable conditions for an outstanding cotton crop in South Carolina this year.” The state’s cotton crop dodged Hurricane Irma for the most part and just suffered minimal damage, Jones said. During the South Carolina Cotton Growers’ annual meeting in January, Nathan Smith, an Extension professor and economist at the Clemson Sandhill Research and Education Center, predicted the South Carolina cotton crop would increase this year. Prior to 2017, the highest-yielding cotton crop in South Carolina was 955 pounds per acre in 2012. Other high-yielding years were 2014 with 912 pounds per acre, 2010 with 898 pounds per acre, 2008 with 896 pounds per acre and 2004 with 875 pounds per acre. The USDA rates the South Carolina cotton crop at 98 percent good to excellent, which has never happened in South Carolina. About 80 percent of the South Carolina cotton crop is planted the first week in May. Cotton harvest begins in late September. A report from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service shows 63 percent of cotton bolls opened as of Sept. 18. Some South Carolina fields have already been picked and filled with modules to be taken to gin yards. Harvesting and ginning are expected to be in full force in the next two weeks.

Source: Clemson University Release

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Bandung: Textile and Textile Product Industry’s Export Reaches $7 Bln in First Semester of 2017

BANDUNG, The national textile and textile industry (TPT) continues to show positive performance, both in domestic and export markets. In the first half of 2017, the growth rate of the export-oriented labor-intensive sector has increased by 1.92 percent to US $7 billion year on year. In the same period of the previous year, TPT industry’s exports was at minus 0.13 percent. "In addition, textile exports also rose 2.71 percent to US $ 7.12 billion until July 2017," said Minister of Industry of Airlangga Hartarto during a working visit toDelami Garment Industries, Bandung, West Java, Tuesday (26 / 9/2017). The Ministry of Industry projected that by the end of 2017 textile exports will reach USD12.09 billion and by 2019 targeted to touch $15 billion. "Increased exports and domestic markets are starting to stretch this, marked by the increased utilization of production from the domestic industry," he said in a written statement announced Kemenperin. To improve competitiveness and productivity in this strategic sector, Airlangga said, the government is working to facilitate logistical access and strengthen local branding. "Currently, our textile industry is already integrated, 90 percent already produced domestically. Therefore, the increase of added value in Indonesia is also important to meet the domestic market, in addition to exports, "he said. In addition, the national textile industry needs to make product innovation as advances in manufacturing technology today. According to him, now no longer just meet the needs of clothing and fashion, but has entered for the interests of technical textiles such as geotextile, medical textile, automotive industry, and nonwoven. Therefore, Airlangga expects Delami Garment Industries and other local textile industry to diversify its products by continuing to follow the development of trenglobal. This is important as future demand leads to higher quality and more specific products. "With the development effort, we can get two advantages at the same time, namely the savings of foreign exchange and reduce import dependence," he concluded.

Source: Netral English

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Exhibition at New York's MoMA embraces fashion for second time

What happens when you put a pair of Spanx in a museum? They start to speak. With the ambitious and exhilarating Items: Is Fashion Modern?, New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) presents a series of ordinary garments in conversation with themselves, each other and their wearers. This is only the second time the New York institution has devoted a show to the subject of clothes. The last was in 1944, when renowned architect and designer Bernard Rudofsky brought an interrogative and cantankerous approach to what he called “the field in which the greatest number of people manifest their aesthetic sense, for better or worse”. That show asked Are Clothes Modern? With Items: Is Fashion Modern? MoMA is asking a series of much more interesting questions: not so much whether or not it is modern, but how does it work, how does it shape us and, most curiously, how does it work as a system. To this end, the show considers the last 100 years of dress through 111 judiciously selected “typologies” that are, as with the humble Spanx, grounded in the quotidian: Speedos, safety pins, hijabs and headphones are all given their respectful, illuminating dues. of these typologies gives us a version of the future, as well the versions of their history. An arsenal of little black dresses, for example, moves beyond the canonical glamour of Chanel and Dior when it culminates in “Little Black (Death) Dress”, a garment that uses thermochromic ink to become “responsive to the touch of grieving loved ones” by changing colour from black to white through the transfer of body heat. The show’s key premise, that fashion is a form of design, is axiomatic rather than radical, yet art institutions nonetheless remain wary of a subject still suspected to be frivolous or purely commercial. As curator Paola Antonelli said: “The spark for it was really coming to MoMA 23 years ago and noticing there was no fashion. Having grown up in Milan, fashion is part of life and even though I never thought the MoMA should have the collection that the Met has, or that the Victoria and Albert has – that’s not what we do – I still thought that there were some garments, like the white T-shirt, like Levis 501, that were necessary.” Antonelli began keeping a private list of “garments that changed the world” and when news of this list reached the museum’s director, Glenn Lowry, he suggested Antonelli build an exhibition. “The goal,” Antonelli said, “was, number one, to let the world know that you cannot do a history of modern design without fashion. And number two, to make people notice design where it exists. To recognise in the show objects they own or aspire to own and look at them in a different way because they’re in a museum.” Rudofsky’s 1944 show included an uneven floor (“it conserves the tactile sensibility of our feet, which flat surfaces and modern shoes have destroyed”) as well as a mirror by the exit, to force attendees to confront themselves. Is Fashion Modern? is less hectoring in its approach, being more interested instead in the associative and collective nature of clothing. In this way it is also a political show. One item, a red football jersey bearing the name “Kaepernick”, was acquired more than a year ago. In the last few days, however, the garment has taken on enormous new symbolic freight as increasing numbers of American athletes follow American footballer Colin Kaepernick’s example and kneel during the national anthem to protest against racial injustice under Donald Trump. As Antonelli asserts, “design is political, unless you purposefully and with effort try to extract it from politics and we never do that. It’s all about human history and that history is always about politics.”

Source: The Guardian

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Kano, Chinese company sign $600 million deal on textile hub

Kano State Government has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Chinese firm, Shandong Ruyi Technology Group of China, to establish a $600million Textile Industrial Park in Kano. Shandong Ruyi is China’s leading innovative technology textile enterprise, and the planned multi-million dollar investment in Kano will be its biggest in Africa, upon completion. The agreemen,t which was reached at the Company’s headquarters in Joining, Shandong, China, was not only anchored at cementing the industrial relations between the two countries but engender economic prosperity in Kano. A statement signed by the Director General, Media and Publicity, to Kano State Government, said the Secretary to the State Government, Usman Alhaji, and the company’s chairman, Yafu Qiu, were said to have signed the agreement on behalf of Kano and the Chinese firm respectively. According to the statement, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who spoke shortly after sealing the deal, said the business opportunity when actualised will be the biggest Foreign Direct Investment in the state in recent time. Ganduje, who is currently on working visit to China, informed his host that Kano has put in place facilities for textile clusters across its 44 local government areas. In anticipation of the park’s take off, Ganduje was said to have requested the Group to visit the state to ascertain the readiness of his government to partner with the Chinese company. He said: “I thank you for the invitation to visit one of your factories and from what I have seen in your production line, your facilities are world-class. “One can only imagine the number of jobs that would be created, and the value that would be added to our economy when your plant commences operation in Kano,” Ganduje said. He assured the company that his administration would create the enabling environment for the smooth take off of the project, adding that government is taking steps to ensure that Kano became the number one destination for investment opportunity not only in Nigeria, but in the West Africa sub-region.Responding, the Ruyi Group Chairman, Yafu Qiu, said the investment agreement entered with Kano state government is to hasten growth and support global development in Nigeria. Yafu, who considered significant the visit of the governor to China to personally officiate the signing of the MoU, expressed confidence on the commitment and successful implementation of the project. According to the Chinese industrialist, “Ruyi company would also look at the possibility of executing a solar power project specifically for the Textile Industrial Park, and we also have the desire to collaborate with the government towards enhancing the capacity of its on-going Hydro Power project at Tiga and Challawa.”

 

Source: Fibre2fashion

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Santex Rimar conducts second Future Textile Road in Iran

Santex Rimar Group, one of the leading players in the world market of textile finishing, technical textiles, and green technologies for water treatment and drying processes, recently held the second Future Textile Road event in Yazd, Iran, working towards its commitment to the textile industry development. Yazd is the Iran textile industry hub. The event drivers were research, dialogue and intercultural cooperation, open innovation, and new technology implementation. The aim of Future Textile Road is to build an innovative platform for the future development of the global textile industry and the long-term construction of the cooperation between countries. During the event, Santex Rimar Group signed an agreement with Yazd University for supplying a SMIT rapier weaving machine with the purpose to train students on the latest textile technologies and do research jointly.  Aliasghar Alamdar-Yazdi and Dr. Seyed Abbas Mir Jalili from the textile engineering department of Yazd University Kamalian from the Sanat va Maadan Bank - Mine & Industries Bank Federico Businaro, general manager of Santex Rimar Italy Enrico Valsecchi, sales head of Smit, and Giancarlo Grandesso from Gi.Vi.Co, Smit were part of the event.  Contents shifted from the relationship between University and local textile companies to the financial tools for Iranian entrepreneurs who want to buy equipment - from the latest developments of SMIT to the trends of fabrics design of Spring/Summer 2018.  The event represented a unique opportunity to the attendees to visit the factory of SMIT customer Reza Soltani. With more than 36 years of experience, he begun weaving traditional fabrics before focusing mainly on upholstery fabrics which are among the best products of SMIT rapier weaving machines.

Source:  Fibre2Fashion

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