New Delhi, Aug 8 (UNI) Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on Wednesday welcomed the increase in basic custom duty on several textile items.

The move is very much in the direction to encourage domestic manufacturing. Increase in import duty on over 300 textile items to 20 per cent will give a further relief to domestic textile and carpet manufacturers, said FICCI Textile Committee Chairman Shishir Jaipuria.

He said the measures taken by the Government in last few months for the textiles sector have been very encouraging and given confidence to the domestic textile industry that has been reeling under the pressure of growing competition and rising cost.

'This has also given us the hope that the Government will address the issue of rising garment imports from Bangladesh, which remains an area of concern for the industry, due to full exemption of basic custom duty from Bangladesh,' he said, according to an official release here.

The garment & carpet industry was under immense pressure after implementation of GST, he said, adding that after GST, substantial drop in import duty was observed which has encouraged cheaper imports.

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