Imported yarn and finished fabric from China, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and Bangladesh have hit the local textile industry of Amritsar, especially those units which have not modernized their machinery.

The Amritsar Yarn Agents Association (AYAA) president, Kamal Dalmia, said that the association, which had been floated with 60 members in 1989, now had 40 members. The number of agents dwindled after the majority of the obsolete units closed down. Besides, a large number of weaving units shifted to Ludhiana and Bhilwara (Rajasthan) due to the unfavourable policies of the government.

Yarn agents were the mainstay of the business because they worked as a fulcrum between yarn manufacturers based in Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir, and Rajasthan.

Utilization of yarn has come down due to labour trouble, wrong government policies and failure of the manufacturers to modernize their units.

First inflation must be reined in on the lines of China, banks here must also give loans at about 7 per cent rate of interest and income-tax exemption must be raised from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh.

Similarly, the excise exemption limit for the textile industry has been Rs 1.50 crore for the past eight years. Keeping in view the inflation, it must be raised to Rs 5 crore because the cost of investment had increased.

The capital investment limit of Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSME) was enhanced in September 2006 from Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore. This needed to be increased to Rs 10 crore now, the association added.