In a letter to Textile Secretary Shyamal Ghosh, FIASWI chairman A N Jariwala regretted that the budget had not provided any relief to indigenous industry against import of fabrics. Even in case of polyester and nylon filament yarns, the customs duty has not been rationalised.

Though the basic excise duty was reduced from 30 per cent to 24 on polyester filament yarn, the special excise duty of 6 per cent has been imposed, besides 15 per cent additional duty. Thus the total duty remains the same. FIASWI, therefore, demands that the rate of duty be reduced from 24 per cent to 16 per cent.

While demanding that indigenous industry be protected against sales tax, octroi, the industry has suggested to leavy specific rate of duty of Rs 25 per square metre on import of fabrics.

Suggesting that units having weaving as well as processing should be treated as independent processing units, FIASWI has asked the finance ministry to ``bring down heavy interest rate and levy reasonable penalty''. The compounded levy on man-made fabrics is to be paid by the independent processor in full in advance by 15th of the month which means duty has to be paid even prior to the production. It is against the basic principle of levy of excise duty on production.