Polyester yarn price surge affects Surat textile industry

The prices of polyester yarn have increased about 12-15 per cent in the last 3 months, adding to the woes of the crisis-ridden textile industry of Surat. The yarn prices increased by 6-8 per cent in the past month itself. 

The demand for fabric is currently low and is not expected to pick up pace before the festival season that will begin a few months later.

A meeting of powerloom cooperatives of Surat and job workers was held recently and it was proposed that the number of daily operating shifts will be reduced from 3 to 2.

This will lead to a fall in production. A fall in the third of the total production of synthetic fabric was also witnessed in Surat after GST was imposed.

The cooperatives will now work in 2 shifts of 8 hours or 6 hours each, leading to a one third cut in production, a top English daily reported.

Weavers’ cooperatives and job workers will cut one shift as the slowdown in yarn weaving and fabric production will result in less processing work for job workers.

Moreover, synthetic fabric attracts 5 per cent GST, whereas yarn has 12 per cent GST, thus making it difficult for powerlooms to claim full GST of yarn when selling fabrics. This will cause a high amount of unused tax to remain in the books. It was decided at the meeting that they will ask for refund of the unused tax credit from the finance ministry, said a person who attended the meeting.

Recently, textile processors in Surat also decided to hike their job charges for processing all types of finished fabrics by ₹2 per metre due to rising costs of dyes, chemicals, coal and textile workers’ wages.