The Minister of
Textiles, Shri Kashiram Rana, has said that the Central Duties
will be so structured as to facilitate the growth and modernisation
of all segments of textiles. Shri Rana said that for the weaker
sections of the textile chain, he would seek an increase in
the financial assistance to raise production and productivity.
For the power loom sector, a package had already been worked
out, which would assist in providing modernised looms, workshed
and infrastructure development in the existing clusters, he
added.
Shri Rana was addressing
the Development Council of the Textile Industry, here last evening.
The 25-member Council with the Minister of Textiles as Chairman
was constituted in February 2001. The function of the Council
is to make recommendations to the Government on matters concerning
the Scheduled Textiles Industry for increasing its productivity
and efficiency, improvement and development of its services,
and increased competitiveness of the industry and its products
in the global market. The Council will also recommend measures
necessary for technological upgradation, capacity utilisation,
availability of raw material, training of personnel, enhanced
scientific and technical research, standardisation of products,
and the collection of statistics from the industry for development
of a data base for economic planning. The tenure of the Council
is two years.
Shri Rana said
that the Textile Ministry’s major initiatives began with the
introduction of Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS), which
was followed by the Textile Package that included a programme
for induction of 50,000 shuttleless looms and 2.5 lakh semi
and automatic looms in the decentralised power loom sector.
Outlining the steps
taken by the Government to fulfil the demands of the textile
industry, Shri Rana said that automatic looms and shuttleless
looms have been completely exempted from Central Excise Duty.
The other measures taken include reduction of Excise Duty from
16 per cent to 12 per cent on processed fabrics, made-ups and
garments; increasing exemption limit for collateral security
for credit from Rs.25,000 to Rs. Five lakh for ensuring the
flow of credit to the Small Scale sector; allowing the import
of 10,000 Second-hand TW-11 Projectile Shuttleless looms; and
reducing the fulfillment of hank yarn obligation from 50 per
cent to 40 per cent. In addition, under the modified Textile
Centres Infrastructure Development Scheme, the Central assistance
would be given to the extent of 100 per cent for the critical
components of projects like common effluent plant, improving
water supply and drainage and construction of crèche
building for apparel units. For the other components, the funding
would be on the ratio of 75:25 between the Centre and the States/reputed
agencies concerned, he added.
The Indian textile
industry, providing employment of 35 million peoples, accounts
for 14 per cent of the country’s industrial production. Textile
exports contribute about 24.4 per cent of the country’s total
export earnings. The number of power looms has grown from 6.38
lakh in 1986 to 16.80 lakh. The respective shares of the power
loom, handloom, hosiery/knitting and the mill sectors in cloth
production are estimated to be 59 per cent, 18 per cent, 17
per cent and 4 per cent, with Khadi, wool and silk accounting
for the remaining 2 per cent. The power loom sector earns foreign
exchange to the tune of Rs.7,000 crore from export of fabrics
and made-ups from cotton, silk and wool segments. It is estimated
that nearly 60 per cent of the fabrics used by the indigenous
garments/apparel sector for the manufacture of readymade garments
are from this sector.
