NATIONAL

• Progress in growth of Indian textile parks slow: minister
• Government to reduce imports of more than 350 "non-essential" items: Report
• Govt open to further reforms, says Nirmala Sitharaman
• Dumping by China? Singapore imports surge under the scanner
• Centre seeks States's views on GST, compensation cess rates
• Rupee slips 12 paise to 71.78 against U.S. dollar in early trade

INTERNATIONAL

• Global Textile Raw Material Price 03-12-2019
• Russian technical textiles on the rise
• Pakistan: Govt releases Rs81.132 million for Textile Industry sector development projects
• Vietnam: Textile-garment industry expands 7.55 percent in 2019

Progress in growth of Indian textile parks slow: minister

Under the Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP) approved during the 10th Five Year Plan in 2005, the ministry of textiles sanctioned 59 textile parks, out of which only 22 have been completed while the rest are under various stages of construction, textiles minister Smriti Irani informed parliament lower house recently. Progress in SITP’s growth has been slow, she said. "The slow progress in the implementation of the textile parks under the SITP has been attributed primarily to delay in obtaining land and other statutory clearances from state government and slow fund mobilisation by the textile parks," the minister was quoted as saying by a news aqgency. The SITP provides support for creating good textile infrastructure, with the government granting up to 40 per cent of the project cost. The government grants up to 90 per cent of the project cost for first two projects each in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir, with a ceiling limit of ₹40 crore for each textile park.

Source: Fibre2Fashion

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Government to reduce imports of more than 350 "non-essential" items: Report

The report further adds that, 350 “non-essential” imports including toys, textile products, footwear and electronic goods may face action. Government is looking to increase customs duty and put in place quality control orders to reduce shipments into the country. Several ministries, including textiles, electronics and IT and commerce and industry, have been asked to take action on the list of identified products. The report further adds that public sector companies had been asked to mention their requirements for products and specifications for the next five to six years to assess domestic demand. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday in an addressing at the reputed English Daily Awards for Corporate Excellence in Mumbai, said that "The Modi government has taken the hard decision in the interest of Indian industry," he said. Referring to a series of measures taken in the field of infrastructure both in the rural and urban areas, he said that the Make in India and Start-up India projects are going to scale new heights in years to come. Stating that India voted to power Narendra Modi in 2014, he said: "Not a single corruption charge was levelled against Modi government. The governance has moved from policy paralysis of pre-2014 to one of bold and decisive government."

Source: Free Press

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Govt open to further reforms, says Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the government is open to further reforms for making India a more attractive investment destination. The government has taken various steps, including reduction of corporate tax, she said at India-Sweden Business Summit here. “I only can invite and assure that the Government of India is committed for further reforms in various sectors whether it is banking, mining or insurance and so on,” she said. She invited Swedish firms to invest in infrastructure development projects. India plans to invest about Rs 100 lakh crore in infrastructure sector in the next five years.

Source: Financial Express

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Dumping by China? Singapore imports surge under the scanner

New Delhi, too, has been mounting pressure on Beijing to trim the massive trade imbalance. An unusual 118% spurt in India’s merchandise imports from Singapore to a record $16.3 billion in 2018-19 has alarmed customs officials and puzzled the commerce ministry, which has asked for a closer scrutiny of the inflows, a senior government official told FE. The move comes amid growing fears that Chinese exporters may be diverting supplies to India through Singapore, taking undue advantage of New Delhi’s duty concessions to the island city-state under a free trade agreement (FTA), as Beijing’s trade war with Washington continues unabated. New Delhi, too, has been mounting pressure on Beijing to trim the massive trade imbalance. “The scrutiny of any potential violation of the rules of origin (of the imported products) is being tightened,” said another source. This level of annual spike in imports from Singapore has been unheard of despite the existence of the FTA for around 14 years now. In fact, at 64%, the highest annual surge in imports from Singapore in recent memory was witnessed in 2006-07, a year after the FTA — formally called the Comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement — was signed on June 29, 2005. Consequently, India’s trade balance with Singapore exacerbated dramatically, from a surplus of $2.7 billion in 2017-18 to a deficit of $4.7 billion last fiscal, showed the DGCIS data. It also helped drive up India’s trade deficit with all Asean members substantially to $21.8 billion in 2018-19 from just $12.9 billion a year before. Although the imports from Singapore have dropped 6.4% year-on-year in the April-October period of the current fiscal to $8.7 billion, they were still more than a double of what India imported from the city-state in the same period in 2017-18 and way above the usual trend in recent years. Interestingly, in addition to Singapore, India’s trade balance with Hong Kong — widely considered a proxy for Beijing — went haywire last fiscal and turned negative for the first time in at least two decades even as its trade deficit with China eased by $9.5 billion to $53.6 billion. This has raised questions about the actual reduction in India’s effective trade deficit with China. India last month pulled out of the China-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) deal, as it feared, among other things, massive dumping by China and some others. So it wanted effective safeguard mechanisms and strict rules of origin to protect its industry but couldn’t get others to agree to. In fact, New Delhi was pushing for “sufficient value addition” of at least 35% in the country of exports for a product to be eligible for its tariff concession under RCEP pact, while others wanted to settle for just minimal value addition. India’s existing FTAs with Asean, Singapore, Japan and South Korea already link duty concession to a 35% value addition to prevent unscrupulous elements in other countries from taking advantage of the low or zero-duty regimes, according to analysts. What reinforced suspicion of a potential diversion of some Chinese supplies was the fact that, among the high-value segments, the maximum jump in imports from Singapore in 2018-19 was noticed in electrical machinery and parts, sound recorders and TV images etc (158% rise year-on-year to $3.1 billion), followed by a 142% surge in certain capital goods (nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances and parts) to $2.7 billion.  Similarly, imports of some petroleum products jumped 209% to $1.6 billion, while those of organic chemicals rose 20% to $1.8 billion and plastics and products by 32% to $1.2 billion. Imports of iron and steel and such articles from Singapore witnessed an over three fold rise to $638 million and even rubber and articles by 263% to $306 million. China is the dominant exporter of most of these products. Although such goods used to be imported from Singapore earlier as well, what raised eyebrows was the unusual spike in such inflows in one year, when there was an escalating trade war between China and the US.

Source: Financial Express

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Centre seeks States's views on GST, compensation cess rates

GST Council to discuss revenue position in details during second fortnight of December 2019. Amidst lower than expectation collection through Goods & Services Tax (GST), the Centre has sought suggestions from the States on rates including those of compensation cess and on exemption list beside others for the next GST Council meeting. According to a statement from the Centre to the States, the discussion on revenue position is critical as lower GST and compensation cess collections have been a matter of concern in the last few months. “The compensation requirements have increased significantly and unlikely to met from the compensation cess being collected,” said the statement. The 38th meeting of GST Council will take place during second fortnight of the current month. The Council is the apex policy making body for GST related matters where Centre and States have pooled their sovereignty in terms of indirect tax matters. It is headed by the Union Finance Minister. The members of the committee include the Union Minister of State (MoS) in the Finance Ministry and one minister nominated from each of the 28 States as well as the three Union Territories with assemblies. The Council has sought suggestions, inputs or proposals as regards measures, on compliance as well as rates which would help in augmenting revenue. “Specific suggestions may please me provided on following – review of items currently under exemptions, GST and compensation cess rates on various items, rate calibrations for addressing the inverted duty structure, compliance measures other than those currently under implementation and any other measure to augment revenue,” the statement read. It has also been said that the next meeting of council will discuss the GST revenue position in details. The Centre and States, both are very much worried about GST Collection so far. After two months of negative growth, GST revenues witnessed an recovery with a positive growth of 6 per cent in November, 2019 over the November, 2018 collections, however, total collection during the year so far is still below the estimate. The GST collection on domestic transactions witnessed a growth of 12 per cent, but on imports it continued to see negative growth at (-)13 per cent

Concerns over delayed payment of compensation cess

The States are concerned about the delay in payment from compensation cess. Last month, West Bengal Finance Minister, Amit Mitra, pointed out that the dues owed to the States and three Union Territories with Legislative Assemblies total about Rs 40,000 crore. According to the GST Act, States and UTs with Assemblies are guaranteed compensation if the GST revenue growth is less than 14 per cent. The amount is paid bi-monthly. This year, States and three UTs were paid Rs 28,000 crore for the June-July period. They are yet to be paid for August-September, which was due in October.

Source: The Hindu

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Rupee slips 12 paise to 71.78 against U.S. dollar in early trade

The Indian rupee opened on a weak note and fell 12 paise to 71.78 against the U.S. dollar in early trade on Wednesday, amid weak opening in domestic equities and sustained foreign fund outflows. Forex traders said, the domestic unit is trading in a narrow range ahead of the RBI monetary policy decision on Thursday. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened weak at 71.76 then fell to 71.78 against the U.S. dollar, showing a decline of 12 paise over its previous closing. The Indian rupee on Tuesday had closed at 71.66 against the U.S. dollar. Bankers and experts believe the Reserve Bank may cut interest rates for the sixth straight time on December 5, to support growth that has continued to slip. Traders said rupee is trading in a narrow range as market is awaiting fresh cues on the potential U.S.-China trade deal. U.S. President Donald Trump has announced imposition of tariffs on imports from Brazil and Argentina as well as indicated that a deal with China might not be happening till next year’s U.S. presidential polls. Speaking in London where he is attending a NATO summit, Mr. Trump said on Tuesday, “I have no deadline, no.” In some ways I like the idea of waiting until after the election,” Mr. Trump added. Meanwhile, brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.81$ to $61.31 per barrel. Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers in the capital markets, as they sold shares worth ₹1,131.12 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional data. Domestic bourses opened on a cautious note on Wednesday with benchmark indices Sensex trading 62.79 points down at 40,612.66 and Nifty down 25.65 points to 11,968.55. The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.01% to 97.72. The 10-year government bond yield was at 6.46% in morning trade.

Source: The Hindu

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Global Textile Raw Material Price 03-12-2019

Source: Global Textiles

Note: The above prices are Chinese Price (1 CNY = 0.14207 USD dtd. 3/12/2019). The prices given above are as quoted from Global Textiles.com.  SRTEPC is not responsible for the correctness of the same.

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Russian technical textiles on the rise

Production of technical textiles including innovative textiles products has more than doubled in Russia over the past seven years, and continues to grow, according to recent statements from Andrei Razbrodin, head of the Russian Association of Textile and Light Industry Producers (Soyzlegprom), a public association, which unites leading Russian textiles and technical textiles enterprises. Razbrodin told Innovation in Textiles that this year the growth of production will not be less than +10%, and comparable to the figures of the previous four years. This is mainly due to the ever-growing domestic demand for technical textiles and innovative textile products and their consumption in the local market. According to data from Soyzlegprom, in general the production of technical and innovative textiles in Russia almost doubled during the period of 2011-2018 and exceeded RUB 76 billion (US$1.18 billion) in value terms last year, a record figure in the modern history of Russia. Soyzlegprom predicts that this year the share is expected to reach 40% of the entire market, compared to 33-35% at the beginning of 2010s. According to expectations of Razbrodin, in the case of maintaining of the current growth rates of the market and a further growth of the local demand, domestic manufacturers will be able to occupy at least two thirds of the national market for technical textiles and nonwoven materials already by the mid-2020s. Analysts also said the number of projects, which involve the production high-tech textiles  products in Russia has significantly increased in recent months. One such project involves the production of Russia’s first innovative production of polymer-coated multilayer technical textile materials. It is implemented on the basis of the Ivanovoiskozh enterprise in the Ivanovo Region, a centre of the Russian technical textile production, while the volume of investments in its commissioning amounted to 630 million rubles (US$10 million). Analysts at Soyzlegprom believe future output of the enterprise will be in high demand among local customers. The list of other promising projects in the field of technical textile, which are currently being implemented in Russia involves the production of technical filtration fabrics on the basis of the local INPC TLC. In addition, several months ago a large-scale project for the manufacture of antimicrobial textile materials and products has been recently commissioned by the Perm-based IDILIO LLC enterprises, is jointly implemented with the Russian Special Textiles Association (Shuya). According to Razbrodin, scientific support is provided by scientists of the Kh.R. Krestov Institute of Chemical Engineering, Analysts believe the Russian technical textiles industry will continue its growth in years to come, while a particular attention will be paid to the increase of the production of health-saving textile materials, including those, which contain nano, bio and modified chemical fibres new generation heaters and heat-insulating fireproof nonwoven materials. That will involve the conduction of more active R&D activities in this field. Next year scientists of Kosygin Moscow State University of Design and Technologies and the First Moscow State Medical University, the oldest medical school in Russia, plan to accelerate R&D activities for the design and production of bactericidal and bacteriostatic textile materials as well as products from synthetic fibers, which are  modified with silver nanoparticles.

Source: Innovation

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Pakistan: Govt releases Rs81.132 million for Textile Industry sector development projects

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Dec, 2019 ) :The Ministry of Planning Development and Reforms has so far given the authorization to release Rs81.132 million for various Textile Industry sector development projects under its Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) for the financial year 2019-20 as against the total allocation of Rs 202.828 million. According to the data PSDP releases , issued by the Planning Commission of Pakistan, the authorities concerned had given the authorization of release of Rs2.828 million for the overall developmental projects of Faisalabad Garments City Traning Centre, Faisalabad under its PSDP 2019-20 as against the total allocation of Rs2. 828 million. The authorities concerned had also given the authorization of release Rs78.304 million for 1000 Industrial Stitching Units (All over Pakistan), as against the total allocation of Rs100 million in order to water conservation. The Federal government has so far released Rs297.278 billion for various ongoing and new social sector uplift projects under its Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2019-20, as against the total allocation of Rs701 billion.

Source: Urdu Point

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Vietnam: Textile-garment industry expands 7.55 percent in 2019

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s textile and garment industry is estimated to grow about 7.55 percent this year, according to President of the Vietnam Textile and Apprarel Association (VITAS) Vu Duc Giang. The sector has maintained healthy growth in spite of economic slowdown and trade tensions between major economies, like the US and China, Giang told a press conference to provide an update on the industry this year and announce the VITAS’s 20th anniversary celebration ceremony. The textile-garment export value is estimated at 39 billion USD this year, below the 40-billion-USD target, he said. The industry’s import turnover is estimated to expand 2.21 percent year on year to 22.38 billion USD. The sector enjoys a trade surplus of 16.62 billion USD, up 2.25 billion USD and 15.7 percentage points from a year earlier. The VITAS President said the US remains Vietnam’s largest buyer which imported 15.2 billion USD worth of textile-garment products, or 38.97 percent of the total export, up 8.9 percent against last year. It is followed by the EU which spent 4.4 billion USD on Vietnamese textiles and garment, accounting for 11.28 percent of the total export and up 2.23 percent. He also announced that a ceremony will be held in Hanoi on December 13 – 14 to celebrate the VITAS’s 20th founding anniversary. The event is expected to see 500 local and foreign guests./.

Source: Vietnam Plus

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