Cii Distances Itself From Row Over Textile Industry Report

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) yesterday sought to soothe ruffled feathers at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) saying the radical changes suggested by the chambers committee for bringing transparency in the textile sector were not its official stand.

The various suggestions made by the chambers textile committee were part of an internal report that had not been endorsed by us, a CII spokesperson said but refused to comment on the charges traded against the chamber by Ficci president A S Kasliwal on Monday.

The textile committee has not even met yet and would be coming together before the end of the month to discuss the draft paper, the CII said.

 

Kasliwal condemned a CII report on textiles that recommended stamping of fibre content and wholesale price on every metre of fabric mandatory adding an apex chamber should check facts and figures before going public about vital issues.

Asked whether Ficci checked the veracity of CIIs official position before blasting a rival industry body, a Ficci spokesman said if media reports were wrong, CII should have issued a denial.

Assocham sources said the reaction of Ficci to a purely internal matter of another chamber is in bad taste and could have been avoided.

However, the sources did not wish to comment on the implications of CIIs suggestions to improve the textile sector saying we have to study the issue in detail.

Kasliwal said the assertion that fibre content is not printed is a misrepresentation of facts. Equally misleading is the claim that stamping the maximum retail price (MRP) on textiles failed.

All the three apex industry associations have leading textile industries as members.

While Assocham boasts of members such as Mafatlal, LNJ Bhilwara group and Coats Viyella, Ficcis list include Arvind Mills of Lalbhai Arvind Group, OCM ltd, Digjam and Grasim of the Aditya Birla group.

Reliance Industries, which is also the largest polyester filament yarn (PFY) company in India, and century rayon are part of CII.