The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) in a circular has said care must be taken to ensure that export products including carpets should not be damaged or destroyed or cut while taking samples for examination.

“It has been brought to the notice of the Board by ministry of textiles and CEPC that in some cases, Customs field formations had caused damage to the carpets during examination/inspection of export consignments. This has resulted in loss of export order as well as financial loss to exporters,” the circular said. “In this context, care must be taken to ensure that export products including carpets should not be damaged or destroyed or cut for taking samples, conducting market enquiry or otherwise.”

Further, for speedy conduct of enquiry about composition, value, etc. of carpets, two experts have been posted by the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts) at the office of Textiles Committee, Mumbai, for attending to all work related to evaluation of carpets and to sort out the cases being referred to the Textiles Committee, Mumbai by the Customs authorities. These two experts are in addition to the nominated members of Carpet Export Promotion Council (CEPC).

The CBEC circular comes after textiles minister Smriti Irani, last month, assured the industry that carpets would not be cut by customs officials, to determine the price of these products.

Irani had then suggested that assistance can be taken from the office of the Textiles Committee and the Institute of Carpet Technology, Bhadohi, to use other ways to determine prices.

Apparel and Textile News, Apparel Talk, Indian Apparel