CSB welcomes hike in import duty on silk.

“The Centre’s  decision to increase the basic custom duty on import of raw silk from five per cent to 15 per cent will boost the Indian silk industry and protect the interest of sericulture farmers,” said M S Bissegowda, chairman of the Central Silk Board (CSB),  on Wednesday.

Gowda opined that upward revision of duty will have a positive impact on domestic sericulture industry through better value realisation for indigenous cocoons and raw silk.

He said the revision of import duty would attract farmers to take up sericulture on a large scale in India. He said the ministry of textiles would set up state-of-art training infrastructure in the city at a cost of Rs 4.77 crore.

Ishita Roy, chief executive officer of the Central Silk Board, said, “In the last two months, imports have come down and exports have gone up. Earlier, we used to import 10,000 tonnes of China silk, now it has been reduced to 5,000 tonnes, and by 2022, we would like to bring it to nil.’’


Source :newindianexpress.com