New Delhi, Jan 24 (IANS): The Northern India Textile Mills' Association (NITMA) has urged the government to raise customs duty on man-made yarns to 10 per cent in the upcoming Union Budget.

The customs duty on man-made yarn is currently at 5 per cent.

According to the industry body, monthly average imports of Virgin Polyester Spun Yarn have increased manifold from 2015 to 2020. Imports from Vietnam alone have increased over 100 times, as per NITMA.

Sanjay Garg, President of NITMA said that representations regarding the import concerns have been sent to the ministries of finance and textiles.

He noted that the man-made yarn sector is one of the largest employment-generating segments within the textile industry and is highly capital and labour-intensive industry as well.

Garg was of the view that the unreasonably low-priced imports of man-made yarn into India have been causing considerable amount of injury to domestic manufacturers for around the last five years.

In a statement, NITMA said that the surge in imports may damage the domestic man-made fibre (MMF) industry and may lead to non-performing assets and closure of units along with huge employment loss.

"As a recapitulation, he (Garg) humbly appealed to the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Textiles to consider increasing the customs duty on man-made yarn from its present level of 5 per cent to 10 per cent immediately in the ensuing Union Budget for the growth and expansion of domestic MMF industry and to prevent mass level loss of employment," the statement said.