Ramaiah To Push For Duty-Free Import Of Used Textile Machines

Union commerce minister B B Ramaiah said his ministry will take up the issue of free import of second-hand textile machinery with the ministries of finance, industry and textiles.

He was responding to a plea by Federation of Indian Textile Engineering Industry (FITEI) chairman R Venkatrangappan at the sixth annual session of the federation on Saturday.

Ramaiah said he would have to study the context in which the decision to allow import s of second-hand machinery is made.

Noting that Indian industry needs more competition, he said he had received several complaints about exporters not adhering to delivery schedules.

He made it clear that Indian industry will have to gear up to face the phasing out of the quota system by the year 2005.

 

Earlier, in his welcome address, Venkatrangappan regretted that production trends in the textile machinery industry are declining.

Despite an installed capacity to produce state-of-the-art machines worth Rs 3,000 crore, the industry has produced only Rs 1,500 crore in 1994-95 and 1995-96. The decline has continued during the first nine months of 1996-97.

Data available for the period ending up to December, 1996, show almost a 20 per cent decline over the corresponding period of the previous year. Even the spinning sector, which was doing well, has suffered a setback in the current year. Order book positions are dry and machines produced against confirmed orders are not lifted by mills, resulting in heavy inventories, Venkatrangappan pointed out.

This is due to the free import of second-hand machinery and the lowering of customs duty on certain categories of textile machinery from 25 per cent to 10 per cent, he said.

The commerce minister also gave away export awards to Lakshmi Machine Works of Coimbatore, ATE manufacturing company and Dhall Enterprises & Engineers of Ahmedabad, and Precision Rubber Industries of Mumbai.