Budget on expected lines – Textile industry leaders

03 Mar '10

3 min read

The Interim Union Budget presented by the Finance Minister of India, was on expected lines was the unanimous chorus of captains from the textile and apparel sector, whom Fibre2fashion spoke to. In fact, the Textiles Ministry has been allocated a budget of Rs 4,725 crores for 2010-11, which is lower than Rs 5912.42 crores allocated in the previous budget, by Mr Pranab Mukerjee.

Other than that, the budget has extended interest subvention of 2 percent on pre-shipment export credit up to March 31, 2011 for exports in certain sectors, but the apparel export sector has been excluded from the same. But at the same time he has announced a partial roll-back of the stimulus package and raised the excise duties from 8 to 10 percent ad valorem.

Fibre2fashion spoke to a few industry leaders to understand their reaction to the budgetary announcements. Mr R Rajendran, CFO of Lakshmi Machine Works considers the budget as a balanced one and one that will induce economic growth as there is a larger allocation for infrastructure development which will stimulate growth. He has also welcomed incentives for engaging in R&D activities.

He also gave full marks to the finance minister for pegging the fiscal deficit in a phased manner and for partially rolling back the stimulus package. However he was of the opinion that the Government should have allocated more funds to the energy sector, considering that there is a serious shortage.

Mr Anil Jain, CFO of Eastern Silk Industries Ltd also considers the budget to be growth oriented and on expected lines. He said that there have not been any major changes from the last year's budget and there are no specific relief's for textile sector, per se, except that the interest subvention of 2 percent has been extended by one more year.

Mr Kasi Thiagarajan, Managing Director, Rajanarayan Exports Pvt. Ltd feels that since the industry on the whole is much better off this year comparatively and there are signs of stability for some time to come, he did not expect any major announcements from the finance minister and is of the opinion that overall he has done his best.

But at the same time, he and the industry at large would be much happier if the policy makers seriously focus on supplying quality electric power and implement a uniform labour policy throughout the country as these two factors have hampered the growth of the industry in India.

Mr Ravichandran, Marketing Head, Lecoanet Hemant India Ltd, which is a Paris based fashion house says that the budget has given a big relief to tax payers targeting middle class working professionals come forward to spend more. In contrast, he feels that the common man is hardly likely to be pleased with the hike in fuel prices by way of excise and customs duty increase on crude oil and petroleum products. According to him, the excise duty hikes are never good news for corporate and industry and considers that it is not a balanced budget; rather it saved more money than it has taken away.

Mr. Nitin S. Kasliwal, MD, S.Kumars Nationwide Ltd (SKNL), despite his busy traveling schedule, however was kind enough to pen down a few comments. He feels that the budget boost for the agriculture sector is a positive sign and that the budget will advance the prospects of the infrastructure sector and has also provided benefit to the salaried class.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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