The Indian synthetic textile industry has found ways to counter the rupee appreciation which is otherwise making textile exports less profitable," said Sanjay Kumar, Regional Officer, Synthetic and Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council in an exclusive interview to SME Times Correspondent Saurabh Gupta.

The Man-made Textile segment is performing very well although the rupee appreciation has hurt the Textiles Industry in general. What is your comment?
Sanjay Kumar: To fight with the problem arising out of rupee appreciation, we are approaching to the government for reduction of taxes. We have also met Kamal Nath (Minister for Commerce and Industry) for reduction in import duty to facilitate this industry and is likely to incorporated soon. Recently import duty has been reduced from 5% to 3% through the EPCG Scheme and the short fall up to 5% in export obligation may be condoned by the RA.  

Indian textile industry is not so much dependent on this problem and we have accepted this change.

The export of Cotton textiles from India is roughly 85 percent, whereas synthetic textiles are only 15 percent. In contrast, the export of Synthetic textiles from China is around 60 percent. India has to catch up with China in increasing exports in synthetic textile sector. What is your comment on this?
Sanjay Kumar: In an open market situation, India is ready to compete with China and the USP of our products is our quality. China has acquired a negative name for its cheap, inferior products in the global markets and the demand for its synthetic textiles have gone down considerably. So there is huge potential for India to capture a big chunk of the market share.

Having said that we need to upgrade our technology which will in turn help us to reduce the cost of production of our products. We have better quality products and once we upgrade our technology, the process of which has already been begun, we will definitely give a tough competition to China.

India is losing out in the fiercely competitive Asian market, wherein even countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Pakistan, Cambodia and Indonesia have all registered growth in the textile sector in the range of over 25 percent compared to the Indian scenario where growth has slowed down to less than 11 percent during January-September 2006. In your opinion what is the reason behind this?
Sanjay Kumar: The export of textiles is very vast and on this issue recently we have suggested to our ministry that we have to concentrate more on those countries which are still untouched like, Latin America, Japan and African countries. We need to enter these key, untapped markets with products specially made to suit the target customers.

The increasing crude prices is effecting the prices of fiber intermediates i.e. PX, PTA & MEG, which may lead to effect the growth of this sector. The average growth in the polyester sector during the last five years has been a meager 4.5 percent per annum only. Do you think that there is a need to rationalize Custom and Excise duty structure in synthetic yarns & fiber sector? Please elaborate.
Sanjay Kumar: No doubt increasing crude prices are affecting the growth of the sector, but we have no control over it...this is a global phenomenon. The government is doing the needful, but they too have certain limitations. There is a need for categorization of crude oil prices according to the size of the enterprises, so that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are benefited too. However this will take some time.

How many of your members are small and medium enterprises (SMEs)?
Sanjay Kumar: Our membership of around 4,500 members represents both big companies including Reliance Industries Ltd, who is a member of very few councils and small enterprises. Although we have big companies, most of our members are from the SME sector. We are basically a bridge between our members and the government. We provide our members with a platform for them to express their grievances and other problems to the government which otherwise would not have been possible as they can't approach the authorities directly.

What is the role of the council as a facilitator to the synthetic and rayon textile industry?
Sanjay Kumar: The Synthetic and Rayon Textile Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC) is one of the oldest council. We were established in 1954 and we are the biggest export promotion council in India.

Earlier our industry faced different types of challenges, but now industry is getting exposure in various exhibitions and seminars. The economy is robust and we are helping our members in finding new customers and newer markets.

Like recently we are handling one case as Turkey had put an anti-dumping investigation regarding  textile exports from India. This means we can't export textile to Turkey because there is an ongoing investigation on the threat posed by India on their domestic and indigenous industries.

The total export to Turkey is near about Rs. 700 crore and with the support of Ministry of Textile and Ministry of Commerce we are trying to resolve this issue. We are bearing an expenditure of around Rs 98 lakh to see that this issue is resolved soon and the Indian export community can again export their products.