Textiles minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar has invited Karnataka’s sericulture minister, A. Manju and MP of Mysuru Pratap Simha to New Delhi to discuss the demand for increasing import duty on silk.

There was a need to discuss the matter with the concerned ministries as import duty comes under the union ministry of commerce, Gangwar said .This followed the difficulties faced by sericulture farmers in Karnataka after a reduction in import duty on silk.

The import duty on raw silk, which used to be around 30 per cent a few years ago, was brought down from 15 per cent to 10 per cent in the last union budget. This has brought down the price of Chinese silk, which in turn led to a decline in price of cocoons reared in Karnataka.

Currently, India produces 29,000 tonnes of silk per annum and thus needs to import raw silk and silk fabric to the tune of 6,000 to 7,000 tonnes mainly from China to meet the growing demand.