Basic customs duty on manmade fabrics has been increased from ten per cent to 25 per cent.

Import of fabrics, especially from China, has seen a sharp increase post-GST at almost 30 per cent. But the manmade fabric and yarn industry in India is affected by cheaper imports from China, Indonesia, Thailand and North Korea, where the fabric industry is subsidized substantially to increase their share of fabric in the world textile trade. Moreover, Indian fabric manufacturers have no protection from FTA countries that have been importing fabrics from China, Indonesia and Pakistan and selling garments made from such fabrics to India.

Over Rs 5,000 crores worth of undervalued fabrics are imported from China and other countries to India per annum. The import of cheap and undervalued fabrics has resulted in the closure of 40 per cent of power looms in the textile hubs of Surat, Itchalkaranji, Malegaon, Bhiwandi, Burhanpur, Varanasi, Salem and Erode. The situation of Banarasi weavers is very pitiable as imported silk fabric is quite cheap than what is manufactured by Banarasi weavers.

Surat’s power loom weavers manufacture four crore meters of fabrics per day, which has been reduced to 1.5 crore meters a day post-GST. Around 95,000 power loom machines have been sold in scrap and more than 50,000 textile workers rendered jobless.