Union Budget 2015-16 presented recently by finance minister, Arun Jaitley has no measures on promoting apparel manufacturing in the country, an expert of India’s clothing and retail industry said.
“This (Budget) is meant to be a ‘Make in India’ Budget and what is disappointing is that there are no measures for encouraging or promoting apparel manufacturing or retail. Apparel is the highest employer after agriculture, and I would have liked to see some encouragement being provided to this sector,” Rahul Mehta, managing director, Creative Lifestyle, said in a statement.
He said it was a great relief to see that the finance minister maintained the status quo on the Optional Route of Excise Duty on Branded Apparel. “Any change on this would have led to a serious blow to an Industry already facing a slow down,” Mehta said.
“It is good to see the reaffirmation of the GST coming in force from April 2016, although we still do not know the exact rates/slabs for the same,” he said.
However, the increase in service tax to 14 per cent will again push up the prices to a small extent, Mehta added.