Apparel makers in Tirupur hail decision

Tirupur: Announcement of various fiscal initiatives by the Union Government to moderate the yarn prices in the domestic market has brought cheers to the apparel manufactures here.

The measures include imposition of ‘prohibitive duty' on the export of cotton yarn and raw cotton, among others. It was also decided by the Union Government to suspend the Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) benefits presently extended to the cotton yarn exporters at the rate of 7.67 per cent of free-on-board value besides introducing a mechanism to a register the cotton yarn exporters.

Laudable

“These steps are indeed laudable and offer consolation to the knitwear industry which has been under severe strain following the abnormal increase in yarn prices at frequent intervals over the last few weeks,” Tirupur Exporters Association president A Sakthivel said.

The rising yarn prices had a cascading effect on the prices making the end products from Tirupur knitwear cluster dearer.

A section of spinning mill owners, however, felt that the decision to impose ‘prohibitive duty' on cotton yarn exports displayed ‘height of immaturity' from the part of Union Government.