Apparel November 2019 Apparel November 2019 issue | Page 29

REPORT
Cabinet Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and
Public Distribution, to discuss the Act at length, is
on the cards.
Committee Members presented views and
counter-views on the various points that were
discussed, and the AGM was concluded with
a general agreement to prioritise and bring the
discussed agenda to the fore.
MEETING THE FINANCE MINISTER
CMAI President Rahul Mehta recently met the
Hon’ble Minister of Finance, Nirmala Sitharaman.
After the AGM, he said in a freewheeling chat
with Apparel, “All major trade bodies and export
promotion councils have come together to
form the informal National Council for Textile
and Clothing (NCTC). Through this informal
committee, we met the Ministers of Textiles and
Finance to put forward the views and problems
of the textile industry as a whole, along with
discussing possible solutions.”
He then went on to explain the motive behind
the formation of this committee. According to the
Government, every sector of the industry comes
with its own issues. Even if the Government does
accept one sector or association’s plea, there will
be ten others to offer contradictory suggestions
to the same. To resolve this confusion and chaos,
the Government suggested all the representative
associations of the textile industry to get together
and make a consolidated, comprehensive set of
suggestions. The committee is an attempt to do
just that.
“Therefore, we formed NCTC and together
presented our suggestions to the Government.
These are, however, immediate and short-term
measures. The committee will also be appointing
an agency to prepare an elaborate paper, listing
mid-term and long-term measures for the growth
“ALL MAJOR TRADE BODIES
AND EXPORT PROMOTION
COUNCILS HAVE COME
TOGETHER TO FORM
THE INFORMAL NATIONAL
COUNCIL FOR TEXTILE AND
CLOTHING (NCTC).”
and revival of the textile industry, which will be
ready in the next two to three months. When
it is done, we will be sending these mid- and
long-term measures to the Government. These
measures will be the ones that we want the
Government to undertake for the betterment of
the industry. We have always received positive
responses from the Government and we look
forward to the same in future,” he added.
APPAREL
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November 2019
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