President of Recycle Textile Federation (RTF), M.Jayabal was re-elected as the federation's new president (for 2025-26) during its Annual General Meeting held on Thursday. 

At the sidelines of the event, he shared with the press and media the requests of some branches of textile sector like home-textile, made ups, etc.(to the state and central govts) which have been affected much by the US tariff hike scenario. 

This 50% tariff levied on Indian exports by the US Govt is a huge burden and it is causing us losses. We are able to bear it for now but we cannot continue it for long. We had the opportunity to meet the Hon'ble Union Finance MinisterTmt.Nirmala Sitharaman in Chennai and we shared our requests and  the required immediate reliefs 
We thank the Minister and the GST Council for resolving the issues we faced with GST, he said.

We have a few key requests to the Union Govt. such as permanently withdrawing the Quality Control Orders (QCOs) and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) regulations (after 31.12.25) that hinder the growth of Indian textiles sector. We have been seeking withdrawal of QCOs on viscose fibre and yarn. We pay Rs.14-20/kilo more than what international players pay for viscose and  polyster. When situation like this exists, how can we compete with international countries and take orders from other markets? We kindly request the Union government to withdraw these QCOs, he said.

22% of textile imports has got affected in India because of US tariff hike. Union government should direct banks to give us loans at low rates and also provide a 24 months window for repaying the loan.  We know that the government is preparing a package for textile sector but we want the govt to introduce it as quick as possible, as every minute is precious, every minute is expensive.

We also kindly appeal to the government to make raw materials available at international costs. In India, Cotton price is 15% more than what other International markets charge. A candy costs Rs.3000-5000 more in Indian market. Import tax reduction on cotton has been extended upto December by the govt. While this is appreciable, we must say that not all can buy imported cotton. 

With regards to the request to the State government, we should say that among all other states in India, TN charges more for the industry. We have been asking State government to reduce the EB related charges. We also want the State to announce a new industrial policy. Other states have done it, and they are wooing us , saying that they will give us tons of subsidies and offers. But we are with the Tamil Nadu, and we will be here conducting our business. We appeal the state to launch a new industrial policy soon.

It is noteworthy to mention that J.Thulasidharan, President, Indian Cotton Federation; T.Rajkumar; Chairman of Standing Committee on Cotton- CITI; Dr.S.K.Sundararaman, Former Chairman, SIMA; S.Krishnakumar, Deputy Chairman, SIMA; K.Selvaraju, Gen.Secretary, SIMA and B.Balakrishnan, MD, ELGiTex took part in the event as Chief Guests. S. Jagadeesh Chandran, Hon. Secretary, SISPA was also a special guest at the event.

At the occassion, RTF presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Annush Ramasamy of Sri Kumaraguru Mill; Excellence Award for Multi Color Yarn Producer to Marimuthu of Tirumalai Textiles; Excellence Award for Optical White Yarn Producer to Vijayasrinivasan of Sai Krishna Cotton Mills; Excellence Award for Grey Yarn Producer to B.Manohar of Kaviharan Spin Tex; Grey Fabric Entrepreneur Award to Pa.Shanmugam of Gemini Textiles and Sustainability Successor Award to Kalaiselvan Palaniappan, MD of Meenatchi Fibres.

Office bearers of RTF include: M.Jayabal - Chairman; K.A.Seetharamaraja, Gen.Secretary;  S.P.Shivakumar, Vice President; J.Balaji, Treasurer; R.Gomathi Shankar, Joint Treasurer.