Applied DNA Sciences has announced it is collaborating with Cotton USA, a trademark of Cotton Council International (CCI), to display cotton traceability technology and What's New in Cotton — as part of the Cotton Cares collection at international fashion events this year. The Cotton Cares Collection is designed to introduce designers, established labels and the apparel industry to the process by which a brand can build a certified and traceable collection, that will provide answers to questions about purity, authenticity and ethical standards.

Applied's Traceability along with Signature T technology provides cotton traceability from the farm to the supply chain, through to store shelves. Forensic level origination is also tracked based on blockchain-enabled systems developed to verify SigNature T tagged fibre, yarn, fabric and finished goods. James A Hayward, President and CEO of Applied DNA Sciences says, "Being able to demonstrate that this tag, test and track technology is easily incorporated into the apparel manufacturing process is a good

first step to engaging product designers. The SigNature T molecular tag is safe and binds to cotton fibre in the first processing stage, at the gin. In the US, SigNature T has been used to tag over 150 million lbs. of U.S grown cotton since 2014 and is an easy solution to adapt resulting in 100 per cent product authenticity - a trait being demanded by more consumers around the globe. Brands and manufacturers now have a means to know exactly where their cotton comes from at any stage of the supply chain through SigNature T tagging, testing and tracking, he added.

With just a few days to go for the Union Budget-2018, the Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association (FOSTTA) has sought extension of the e-way bill's implementation in the textile industry by six months and simplification GST as well as a range of other demands submitted to Union finance minister Arun Jaitley. FOSTTA says, the Surat's man-made fabric (MMF) sector was manufacturing 4 crore metre of fabric per day, which has been reduced to 1.7 crore metre post GST. The daily turnover of 65,000 textile traders, which was estimated to Rs 110 crore per day, has been reduced to just Rs 45 crore post GST.

Textile traders urged the finance minister to form a special committee on MMF textile sector to study the impact of GST and suggest long-term solutions. The traders demanded that central government set up a garment manufacturing hub in the city to help textile traders directly supply their fabrics to manufacturing units.

The central government should increase loan amount from Mudra Bank from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh to support the 'Make In India' campaign and permit small traders to avail of benefits. Textile traders are facing numerous issues in submitting KYC details to the banks under the new law of the Reserve Bank of India. A majority of textile traders, including small traders, do not have permanent houses in the city and are unable to submit their personal details.

Century Textiles & Industries (CTIL) reported strong net sales as it grew strongly by 17.6 per cent yoy to Rs2,069.5cr (net of excise duty for the base quarter). EBITDA reported 39.8 per cent yoy rise to Rs333.8cr. Led by cost saving in raw material, employee and other expenses, as a per cent of net sales, EBITDA margin expanded by 257bps yoy to 16.1 per cent. Further, with lower interest cost coupled with margin expansion, post adjusting for losses of discontinued operations (PAT) spiralled up significantly to Rs89.9cr as against Rs17.2cr in Q3FY17.

The textile segment reported 5.1 per cent yoy growth in revenue at Rs385.2cr with EBIT margin of 11.2 per cent (65bps yoy contraction). The quarterly numbers were healthy post subdued performance of H1FY18. During the quarter, the company entered into an agreement with Grasim Industries granting it the right to manage and operate the company's viscous filament yarn business for 15 years, commencing February, 2018 on a mutually agreed date.

Grasim will be paying Rs 600 cr upfront royalty along with a Rs200cr refundable security deposit (repayable after 15 years). Additionally, CTIL incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary, Birla Estates, to focus on the real estate business.

Post repeated calls from various industry groups, the government announced the enhancement of duty drawback rates to be effective from January 25, 2018. The enhancement of rates for 102 tariff items will definitely bring relief to all stakeholders. On the flip side, representatives from the textile industry have noted their "disappointment" with the government for ignoring the calls of an industry which has been "one of the most impacted by GST".

Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), president, Sanjay K Jain is unhappy with the notification, "The notification just mentions wool items which is a very insignificant part of the textile industry. There is nothing on textiles. The textile industry is pretty disappointed that demands for increasing drawback or RoSL for yarn fabric and garments was not considered, despite the industry being in a very difficult position post-GST."

The local textile industry is seeing the country increasingly getting flooded by imported material which is a serious concern for the SMEs operating in this sector. The national president of the Textile Association, Arvind Sinha decries, "Export incentives have come down and at the same time import barriers have gone down which has resulted in imports going up by 20 per cent already, and in some cases like in Bangladesh garments have increased by 50 per cent. Exports are coming down every month."

A decline of 3 per cent in CAGR in textiles and apparels in the month of December last year as against the corresponding period in 2016 has been reported. Exports came to $2996 million during December 2017 when compared to $3075 million in December 2016. Jain echoed the concerns of the industry, "The effective GST duty on fabric is 5 per cent officially, but because of the non-refund of excess input tax credit under inverted duty structure, it actually adds up to 8-9 per cent.

This is making us lose to imports because they only pay 5 per cent IGST." Sinha also shares the same view, "We need genuine duty exemption in exports because money is getting stuck for manufacturers."