Industry body FICCI has welcomed the increase in basic custom duty on several textile items., terming the move as very much in the direction to encourage domestic manufacturing.

Increase in import duty on over 300 textile items to 20% will give a further relief to domestic textile and carpet manufacturers, said Shishir Jaipuria, Chairman, FICCI Textile Committee.

Jaipuria added, "The measures taken by the Government in last few months for the textiles sector have been very encouraging and given confidence to the domestic textile industry that has been reeling under the pressure of growing competition and rising cost."

"This has also given us the hope that the Government will address the issue of rising garment imports from Bangladesh, which remains an area of concern for the industry, due to full exemption of basic custom duty from Bangladesh," noted Jaipuria.

Jaipuria stated that the garment & carpet industry was under immense pressure after implementation of GST. After GST, substantial drop in import duty was observed which has encouraged cheaper imports.