SIMA seeks more assistance
The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has appealed to the Centre to provide more assistance to textile research associations to study the potential in the technical textile sector.According to the association chairman, S.V. Arumugam, several awareness programmes and meetings have been conducted on technical textiles. Currently, India imports majority of its technical textile needs. This is a specialised segment in the textile sector covering areas such as medical, geo and non-woven textiles.
These can be used in laying of roads, in the medical and automobile sectors, etc. Mr. Arumugam said that though the industry was aware of the potential in the domestic and export markets for these products, it needed to know more about the investments required to establish a unit, the products that had a market and the guidelines to set up a unit. “The investors are ready. But we need expertise,” he said. Only the textile research associations had the technical expertise in this field.
Hence, they should be supported with more funds to study and help the industry set up units, at least to cater to the domestic market, he said. Availability of adequate information and guidance would encourage more units to invest in this field. This, he said, was crucial for its growth.
Speaking at a recent seminar on non-woven textiles here , he called for more industry-institute tie-ups to study this segment.
On the appreciation of the rupee, Mr. Arumugam said that the industry needed five to six per cent increase in the benefits under the duty drawback and the Duty Entitlement Passbook schemes. Further, the interest rate on pre-and post-shipment credit should be brought down to six per cent from the current 10 to 11 per cent. “The interest rates on export credits should be reduced.”“These would help the industry meet the loss they incurrent due to the weakening of the dollar”, he said.
