Fiber consumption in India is skewed toward natural fibers, especially cotton.
But globally manmade fibers have a 70 per cent share in total fiber consumption while natural fibers constitute only 30 per cent.

So it is important for India to focus on manmade textiles along with cotton textiles.

The downstream industries in India’s manmade fiber textile value chain, spinning and weaving, the largest employment generators in the entire value chain, are facing acute stress due to high prices of domestic staple fiber. This affects the export competitiveness of the domestic downstream manmade fiber textile industry and also makes the industry venerable to imports of value added manmade fiber products.

Anti-dumping duties at the beginning of the textile manufacturing chain have hurt the downstream industry. Presently, the anti-dumping duty on PTA is Rs 4 to Rs 6 per kg and on viscose staple fiber, the anti-dumping duty is Rs 12 per kg. India has huge and efficient capacities in the manufacturing of polyester staple fiber and also viscose staple fiber.

Imports of manmade staple fiber in 2017-18 were less than 15 per cent of the total manmade staple fiber consumption in India.

Since GST, Indian imports of yarn, fabrics and garments have increased substantially.