Punjab textile units cheer Customs duty cut on fibre

BUDGET BYTES: VIEWS FROM THE NORTH

Textile units in Punjab are happy at the reduction in Customs duty to 7.5 per cent on polyester fibre and yarn.

An executive of one of the leading yarn-manufacturing units of Punjab said the decrease in import duty will induce local manufacturers to slash prices and make the market more competitive.

According to sources, Reliance and Indo Rama are the major producers of polyester and the price in the local market was dictated by the price of imported polyester.

The initiatives in the farm sector are also likely to have a substantial impact on Punjab and Haryana. The tax concessions offered on seed development and R&D in agriculture will help the agro processing units.

Lakshmi Foods and Energy Director IS Gombar, told Business Standard the initiaves taken in the Budget would help in increasing the per capita productivity of agriculture and help their company to procure foodgrains.

Modern Dairies Ltd Chairman & Managing Director Krishan Goyal said, "The finance minister has neglected food processing, which is one of the most promising sectors.If the government wants to give a fillip to this sector, he has to give equal emphasis to the food processing sector, but nothing has been done in the intereste of food processing industries, he says.

"We want similar benefits on line of TUF's in the dairy sector ," he demanded.

Echoing similar views, Bharat Industrial Enterprises Ltd, a leading exporter of Basmati Rice CEO, Mohit Gupta said, " There is nothing for the food processing sector, even those who are enagaged in exports and bringing foreign revenue to the country. We thought that the government should give us relief in terms of FBT. Apart from FBT, we have to pay service tax on overseas brokers, so we thought that might government should give relief to us in terms of taxes, but nothing could be done."

He said that reduction in excise duty for import of machinery has given a relief to the new units as most of the machinery is imported, but not the existing one.