National Committee on Textiles & Clothing (NCTC) has appealed to the Prime Minister for removing Anti-Dumping Duty (ADD) on Viscose Staple Fibre (VSF) and address the VSF spun yarn availability and price issues to prevent job losses and stoppage of production across the VSF textile value chain. Under the common platform of NCTC trade bodies expressed the textile industry has been facing stagnation for many years mainly due to the lack of availability of basic raw materials of man-made fibre/filament yarn at internationally competitive prices.

NCTC observed “owing to the growing demand for Viscose Staple Fibre and its blended textiles and clothing market opportunities, the demand for Viscose Staple Fibre has increased steeply not only in India, but also across the globe. As the imported yarn price was cheaper due to high anti-dumping duty prevailing on the domestic viscose staple fibre, the weaving and knitting sectors have been importing large volume of VSF spun yarn. The import of VSF spun yarn has increased from 2 million kg during 2016-17 to 56 million kg during 2019-20”.

The VSF Value Chain Industry players concluded removing ADD on VSF will make the domestic VSF prices aligned with the Global VSF prices making the entire Indian VSF textile value chain globally competitive and boost production and exports of these products.