Ludhiana knitwear producers to strike from today

23 Mar '11

2 min read

Discontented by the relief that the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has declared for the garment industry, the readymade garment producers from Ludhiana have announced that they would resort to an indefinite strike from March 23 onwards, to renew their demand for complete withdrawal of the excise duty.

The Chamber of Knitwear & Textile Associations of Ludhiana said that, the Finance Minister so far has not done anything with regards to their demand to completely withdraw the excise duty on the readymade garments, and hence they now have no other option but to resort to indefinite strike.

Earlier this month also, the RMG units in Ludhiana remained closed on March 4 and then on March 14 and 15 to object the duty imposition. There are around 10,000 RMG units in Ludhiana which are likely to be hit by the new duty imposition.

Prior to this too, the Centre had subjected the textile sector to excise duty imposition in 2004, but withdrew the same, due to protest from the aggrieved sector.

The sector has protested the duty imposition citing reasons like non-accrual of tax credit on excise duty paid, non-absorption of increase in the prices, apprehensions of extensive corruption and harassment and rising prices of raw materials.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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