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| Sunday, 20 November 2005 |
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JAFF hails 2006 Budget by Don Asoka Wijewardena The UPFA Government's budget for 2006 has accepted our proposals which had been rejected by successive governments. The apparel industry is the mainstream of our economy and we are grateful to the government, said Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) Secretary General M. P. T. Cooray at a media conference on Budget Proposals for 2006 by the Apparel Cluster at Hotel Trans Asia on Monday. Cooray said that the first proposal was to set up a College for the Apparel and Textile Education and Training Institute covering vocational,technical and tertiary educational aspects and improve the training facilities available within the country. He said that the implementation of this concept would ensure a good supply of trained and educated cadre for the apparel industry to transform itself from a contract manufacturer to a full service value added solution growth and meet its ambitious targets in the post-quota era. Cooray said that Sri Lanka's eligibility under the EUGSP+ scheme had to some extent mitigated the impact of the phasing out of the Multi Fibre Agreement in December 2004 by providing preferential market access to over 7,000 items to the European market, including textiles and apparel. He said that Sri Lanka was a net importer of textiles to the value of over 1.5 billion US dollars a year and added that if at least part of these imports could be produced locally the advantage of domestically sourced inputs would assist conformity with the rules of origin. Setting up textile mills would require a steady supply of water, stable power and efficient effluent treatment plants and a logical and convenient base for locating such textile processing zone would be Thulhiriya which was the site of the former Kabul Mills equipped with most of the infrastructure. JAAF Chairman Ashraff Omer said that JAAF's proposal that apparel sales in the domestic market be liberalised by removing all barriers and maintaining the export momentum were also accepted in principle. Regarding the tax proposals,Ashraff said that JAAF proposed that input and intermediate good manufacturers supplying to non-traditional export-oriented companies, including apparel manufacturers registered with the textile Quota Board/EDB be brought under the suspended VAT scheme with a facility to import the inputs required by such intermediate and input manufacturers on a deferred VAT basis. He said that this proposal was also accepted by the government. Referring to the other proposals accepted by the government, Ashraff said that the proposal of income of a registered apparel manufacturer arising from subcontracting activities entailing sewing and assembly of garments and or this provision of services which would result in a change or improvement either of quality or character or the value of the garments to be exported, be treated as deemed exports provided such income was received in convertible foreign currency from the company which was exporting the final products. |
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