Recently, the Confederation of Indian Industries in its pre-Budget recommendations to the Finance Ministry, said the excise duty on polyester filament yarn should be reduced from 24 percent to 16 percent and on other man-made filament fibres and yarns from 16 percent to 8 percent.

I would say the Finance Ministry can also do a world of good by removing duties on garment exporters for procuring inputs out of their quota of 3-5 percent of the Free-On-Board value of exports from domestic manufacturers without payment of applicable duties. He can treat such supplies made by domestic manufacturers as deemed exports.

Experts tell me that the global trade in textiles is likely to grow by about 5 percent in the coming years. And such steps will indeed help the exim community.

India Inc. has also rightly suggested reduction on customs duty to 5 percent on two additional textile machines by including them in list 30 of Customs notification 21/2002.

Today, the textile industry I would say is a leading sector of the Indian economy which contributes a lot to the exchequer. Our Finance Minister and his colleagues will certainly take into account this fact while dwelling upon these suggestions.