Apparel Online India Magazine February 1st Issue 2019 | Page 40

INDUSTRY LIVE
Pratibha Syntex bags Jaivik India Award
Well-known apparel exporter of
India, Pratibha Syntex, Indore
has won Jaivik India Award
in the direct farmer linkage
category for its farming initiative
Vasudha Organic. The award
was given by International
Competence Centre for Organic
Agriculture(ICCOA) in New
Delhi recently. “The Vasudha
team is working with farmers
to develop innovative multi-
cropping system for both seasons,
which have the potential to
substantially increase the per
acre income. This not only has
a positive economic impact but
also enhances biodiversity and
efficient utilisation of water
and other resources,” shared
Shreyaskar Chaudhary, MD of
the company. The company has
kept farmers and their well-being
at the centre of the development.
The garment exporter identifies
sustainability as its core strategy.
He further added, “When
Pratibha Syntex commenced
Vasudha initiative, the main
problem was farmers’ total
dependency on chemical inputs.
To convert them to organic, there
The Indian textile and apparel
industry is happy with the
Government’s decision for
identifying and notifying
Harmonised System of
Nomenclature (HSN) codes
of technical textile. The
Government notifying the codes
for 207 technical textile products,
focused on strategies which can
be evolved to promote export of
these goods.
Team Pratibha Systex receiving the Jaivik India Award
was a grave need for creating
awareness and training. So, we
established training modules and
organised workshops for farmers
at various places.” The company
gradually used technology and
incorporated social media in its
training modules. Pratibha has
been making videos on various
agriculture techniques and sharing
it on YouTube and WhatsApp,
besides sending audio messages to
farmers through mobile. Vasudha
Organic has developed local input
production centres in five villages.
The company has started creating
a market linkage for the non-
cotton organic produce of farmers,
which will provide a holistic and
one-point solution to the farmers,
besides getting the right price.
“We aim at increasing farmers’
income four times by 2020. In a
bid to attain the target, we have
implemented strategic and technical
interventions in farming practices,
which have turned out to be a
boon for the farming community,”
concluded Shreyaskar.
GST: Industry welcomes relief to
small businesses
In a move that could boost small
businesses in a big way, the
Government doubled the annual
turnover exemption limit under
GST to Rs. 40 lakh. Currently,
firms with an annual turnover of
up to Rs. 20 lakh are exempted
from registration. The raised
exemption threshold will allow
around 20 lakh taxpayers to
opt out of GST if they choose
to. The annual turnover for
availing the composition scheme
has been increased to Rs. 1.5
crore from Rs. 1 crore, effective
from April 1, 2019. Businesses
under the scheme will now pay
40 Apparel Online India |
tax on a quarterly basis but the
returns will be filed annually.
This has come as a big boost to
the small businesses. As far as
the textile and apparel industry is
concerned, this decision will help
thousands of jobworkers in textile
and apparel hubs, who are an
important part of the industry.
“These decisions will help the small
and medium-sized businesses
and will encourage growth in the
textiles sector. The expansion
of the Composition Scheme has
come as relief to a large number
of small tax payers who are not
in a position to file returns on
Notifying
HSN codes of
technical textiles'
items will benefit
the industry
time,” said Dr. K.V. Srinivasan,
Chairman, The Cotton Textiles
Export Promotion Council
(TEXPROCIL).
The GST Council, headed
by Union Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley, has also
approved the composition
scheme for the services
sector. “The states will have
the discretion to opt up or
opt down the exemption limit.
They will have to inform
the Secretariat within a
week if they wish changes
in their exemption limit,”
said Jaitley.
FEBRUARY 1-15, 2019 | www.apparelresources.com
India’s annual exports of these
207 products is currently US
$ 1,700 million. The demand for
these is good in the global market
and the margins are also high.
Among these 207 products, there
are 174 products from the textile
value chain with 12 products
which fall under RMG category.
The Vice Chairman of AEPC
A Sakthivel, said that with such
initiatives by the Government,
there can be product-specific
incentives for traditional textile
products. “These products were
currently being traded under
traditional textile products.
Since many of them are high-
value products or are inputs for
high-value garments, I see this
as an important opportunity to
diversify our export basket, with
better value creation.”
The Confederation of
Indian Textile Industry has
also welcomed the move.
“Technical textiles provide
new opportunities to the Indian
textile industry to have long-
term sustainable future. They
are not limited to Chapters 50
to 63 of HSN Codes pertaining
to conventional textiles, but are
covered under the HSN Codes
spread over Chapter 1 to 99.
In order to compile the data
on export and import and to
also provide fiscal support, it
was necessary to identify the
HSN Codes of all the technical
textile items,” said Sanjay Jain,
Chairman, Confederation of
Indian Textile Industry (CITI).