TEA President welcomes Union Budget 2012-13

16 Mar '12

2 min read

Hon'ble Union Minister of Finance Shri. Pranab Mukherjee presented Union Budget 2012-13 in Parliament.

While giving reactions to the Budget, Dr. A. Sakthivel, President of Tirupur Exporters' Association (TEA) said he welcomed the introduction of GST from August 2012 and allocation of Rs.1000 crores for Skill Development under National Skill Development Fund in 2012-13. He also welcomed the setting up of Rs.5,000 crore India Opportunities Venture Fund with SIDBI for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).

Dr. A. Sakthivel welcomed the continuance of the existing concessional rate of basic customs duty of 5 per cent to specified new textile machinery.

However, Dr. A. Sakthivel concerned about only a small reduction made in the payment of excise duty on branded garments where, the duty charged would be at 30% of the retail sale price against the existing 45% and noted that the industry had actually requested for full excise duty exemptions from payment of duty on branded garments. Dr. A. Sakthivel also pointed out that the excise duty has been enhanced to 12% on readymade garments bearing a brand name or sold under a brand name.

Dr. A. Sakthivel also mentioned that as the service tax has been increased to 12% and included more services in the budget, he appealed to the Finance Ministry to increase the refunding the Service Tax given to knitwear exporting units from existing 0.15% to 1.5% of the total FOB value of exports through the customs EDI system, which is required to offset the increase in service tax rate.

On the continuance of Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF) scheme, Dr. A. Sakthivel hoped that the announcement would be made in the 12th Five-year plan.

Tirupur Exporters' Association (TEA)

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