Union Textile minister Smriti Irani today called upon the Indian jute growers to catch up with the latest fashion trends of the world to overcome stiff competition from a ‘galloping Bangladesh’ with better products.
Addressing members of the city’s premier Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) at a special session here today on “Recent Development in the Textile Industry : The Road Ahead”, the Union minister regretted that in spite of being the largest producer of Jute in the world, India continued to lag far behind a galloping Bangladesh in terms of exporting jute related products to every corner of the globe with quality products.
Referring to the possibility of improving the quality of Indian jute in the midst of a stiff competition, Irani suggested that the issue could be taken up in consultation with the union ministry of Agriculture so that a better seed could be produced for a better end product.
In this connection she urged the West Bengal based jute growers to take the initiative for producing a much better quality jute as suggested by the experts Agricultural ministry, as the state was the largest producer of this fibre based product involving millions of farmers.
The Union minister who at the beginning of her brief address invited queries from the audience, comprising a number of experts in the jute and textile industries about the problems facing the sector, highlighted the growing importance of ‘technical textile’ which could be used in a wide range of products at minimum cost.
Technical textile was now the in thing in the textile industry, she said and referred to its vast utilisation in a variety of items – from garments to door mat and from bed cover to car seat cover – apart from many other items of every day use.
The government of India had earmarked a huge sums of money of more than Rs 17,288 crores for its further development and proper utilisation, Irani said and called upon the players in small and medium scale industries in textile sector to make full use of them for a double digit growth.
Earlier replying to a variety of queries from those related with the textile industry, particularly the possibility of early refund under the new GST regime,the minister said though the final decision in this regard was vested on the all powerful GST Ministerial Council,she could forward their recommendations to the concerned authority for an early result.
In this connection she informed the gathering about the latest decision of the GST Council as well as the Union Finance ministry allowing self certification to seek refund for those whose annual business turnover was less that Rs 20 lakhs.
Earlier, welcoming the guest MCCI Senior Vice President Vishal Jhanjharia highlighted the problems facing the world’s second largest producer of textiles and garments after China with an annual turnover of over three trillion dollars, and sought the ministry’s intervention for their early solutions.
Hindusthan Samachar/Ankur/Shri Ram Shaw\
