A year after the elimination of quotas, India has reported more than 50 percent drop in the exports in about seven textile categories to the US.
Of the total 113 categories, loss was recorded chiefly in man-made fibre (MMF) sector that includes knit shirts, twill, sateen fabric and wool skirts.
Knit shirts exports declined to $20.75 million in 2005 from a a high of $44.4 million in 2004 while sateen fabric exports plunged from $5.31 million to $2.52 million, a 52 percent decline.
MMF twill exports decreased 53 percent to reach $4.61 million.
Latest Budget has reduced excise duty on MMF from 16 percent to 8 percent.
However, some experts believe that the discrimination between cotton and MMF sector still exists.
Sources explain that although the import duty has been reduced from 15 to 10 percent, it hardly makes any difference because of the extra four percent of customs duty.
High import duty has led to higher prices in the domestic MMF segment.
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