Heeding industry's demand, govt raises duty on polyester fabrics to 20%

The industry had made representations to the government and the GST Council to increase the basic customs duty on fabrics to retain the competitiveness of the domestic manufacturing industry

The government has decided to increase the basic customs duty on polyester fabric to 20 per cent from 10 per cent. Industry experts said this would retain the competitiveness of the domestic manufacturing industry.

The increase will be with effect from October 27, 2017.

Under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, countervailing duty (CVD) has been replaced with IGST and the special additional duty has been scrapped. Polyester fabric attracted 10 per cent basic customs duty, 12.5 per cent CVD and four per cent special additional duty under the pre-GST regime. 

Consequent to the scrapping of four per cent