New Delhi, Jan 10 : The National Committee on Textiles and Clothing (NCTC) has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to remove Anti-Dumping Duty (ADD) on Viscose Staple Fibre (VSF) and address the VSF spun yarn availability and price issues to curb job losses and stoppage of production across the VSF textile value chain, jhe Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) on Sunday. As per the statement by the industry body, the textile industry has been facing stagnation for many years, mainly due to the lack of availability of the basic raw materials of man-made fibre/filament yarn at internationally competitive prices. Taking a serious view of the high price of VSF in India, the captains of the various segments of VSF value chain, viz Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI), Indian Spinners Association (ISA) and Powerloom Development Export Promotion Council (PDEXCIL) under the common platform of the NCTC have unanimously submitted a joint representation to the Prime Minister for the removal of Anti-Dumping Duty on import of VSF to achieve global competitiveness and accomplish the target of $350 billion by 2025 set by the Ministry of Textiles for the textiles and apparel sector. They have also requested the Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani and Textiles Secretary A.K. Sharma to support the textile industry in this regard, said the statement. The NCTC observed that "owing to the growing demand for Viscose Staple Fibre and its blended textiles and clothing market opportunities, the demand for Viscose Staple Fibre has increased steeply not only in India, but also across the globe. As the imported yarn price was cheaper due to high anti-dumping duty prevailing on the domestic viscose staple fibre, the weaving and knitting sectors have been importing large volume of VSF spun yarn. "The import of VSF spun yarn has increased from 2 million kgs during 2016-17 to 56 million kgs during 2019-20." NCTC also highlighted in the appeal that "in the post-Covid market scenario, VSF price has increased from $1.15 to $1.50 per kg during the last few months. As the domestic VSF price was expensive due to anti-dumping duty (upto $0.512 per kg), the demand for domestic spun yarn got reduced and therefore, the availability and price are affecting the entire VSF value chain especially the knitted and powerloom sectors. "All the major VSF Powerloom clusters in the states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, etc are agitating against the steep increase in VSF prices". /IANS