FICO demands to check rise in prices of yarns

Ludhiana: Federation of Industrial & Commercial Organization (FICO) demanded Mrs Smriti Irani, Minister of Textiles, Government of India to keep a check on the rise of prices of yarn. As textile industry is already recovering from the serious impact of Corona lock down, has almost come at verge of closure.

Mr. Gurmeet Singh Kular President FICO said that the fabric & garment industries are predominantly, in the MSME segment & are labour intensive employing lakhs of workers. Constant undue increase in the prices of all the basic raw materials have put the textile industry on the verge of closure. 

Mr. Vipan Mittal Vice Chairman FICO said that the Cotton crop output of the country this year was higher than last year. Moreover, garments exports to Europe & USA is less than half compared to last year. Inspite of that there is shortage of yarns & price increase is most unreasonable (about 50%), in the last 3-4 months, going beyond the reach of MSME units. This is because the basic Cotton Yarns are being exported to Bangladesh & CHINA in large quantities by Indian spinners & for Indian market they have made a cartel along with the traders to increase the prices to this extent, & have created an artificial shortage to increase the rates to make more profits, rendering the MSME industry unviable & uncompetitive in the domestic as well as export market. The government should ban the export of yarn. The spinners may also be advised to keep same rate for one month at least for the industry to plan their orders in hand.

Mr. Ajit Lakra Head Textile Division FICO said that the M/s Reliance Industries Ltd. is the largest manufacturer of polyester yarns in India. Due to monopoly, Reliance Industries has raised the yarn, POY, DTY, FDY etc. prices up to 30% to 40℅ in the last 2-3 months & have created an artificial shortage in the domestic market.

The government should immediately remove anti-dumping duty on polyester yarn & it's raw materials so that yarn becomes available to the Indian textile manufacturers at the international price thru import. This will generate more employment in India as well as revenue for Indian government.

MSME textile units are already under a heavy stress, the abnormal rise in yarn prices have further made the survival of MSME units very difficult. Closure of MSME garment units would render lakhs of workers unemployed & will cause a big setback towards India becoming Atam Nirbhar in textiles.