No need for panic yet over textile incentive expiry

Concerns in the clothing and textile sectors reported in the national press about last week’s expiry of the Textile and Clothing Industry Development Programme (TCIDP) export-based incentive can be put to one side, according to a senior FTW source in the industry. “I can guarantee it will be extended for another year to March 31, 2010,” he said. That’s been the history of the export incentive for the past eight years, he added, and the delay in the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) announcing the extension is “purely because of the usual bureaucratic tardiness”. For the past eight years, the TCIDP incentive has expired on March 31 each year, and, after a couple of months the extension has been granted, the source added. “It’s going to be the same this year. It’s only a matter of waiting for the official announcement to be made.” This has been indirectly confirmed. The national newspaper, Business Day reported that it was “aware of a decision taken at the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) ministerial council in December, and circulated informally in the industry, that the plan would be renewed for one year”. And certainly, the demise of the old incentive scheme has not yet been cast in stone. Siyabulela Tsengiwe, chief commissioner of Itac, has been reported as saying: “The commission has not received a policy directive from the trade and industry minister to gazette the decision.”