The Northern India Textile Mills Association (NITMA) has welcomed the Government of India’s decision to exempt import duties on all varieties of cotton (HSN 5201). The exemption, effective from August 19 to September 30, 2025, removes 5% customs duty, 5% Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess (AIDC), and 1% additional cess, providing critical relief to the textile sector.
Shri Munish Avasthi, Senior Vice President of NITMA, thanked Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for his leadership and Hon’ble Ministers Shri Giriraj Singh and Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman for their swift response to industry concerns. He noted that this intervention will help stabilize the cotton value chain and support India’s USD 100 billion textile export goal, especially amidst rising raw material costs and the widening gap between domestic and global cotton prices. However, he cautioned that the short exemption window may limit benefits, as shipments from countries like the USA and Brazil typically take 70–75 days.
On the man-made fiber (MMF) front, Shri Sidharth Khanna, President of NITMA, highlighted the urgent need to correct the Inverted Duty Structure (IDS) under GST, which continues to challenge the sector. He called on the Ministries of Finance and Textiles to implement a uniform 5% GST rate across the MMF value chain—reducing GST on MMF yarn from 12% to 5%, and on raw materials like PTA, MEG, and man-made fibers from 18% to 5%.
He stressed that such reforms would ease liquidity pressure, particularly for MSMEs, reduce cost disadvantages against imported synthetic yarn, encourage new investments, and enhance competitiveness without reducing government revenue, since fabrics are already taxed at 5%.
NITMA reaffirmed its commitment to work closely with policymakers to strengthen India’s textile industry and build a more resilient, globally competitive value chain.
