Since the last few years, the Indian textile industry has been facing problems like technological obsolesce, high input cost (power & capital), poor access to credit, fragmented units, absence of fiber neutrality etc. To address these issues, the government has been implementing various schemes over the years.
It is now formulating a New Textile Policy for overall development of the sector. Based on inputs from all the state governments, individuals through e-portal and different associations, this policy focuses on topics like cotton, silk, jute, wool, man-made fibre, handloom, handicrafts, powerloom, technical textiles, technology & machinery upgradation, infrastructure (spinning, weaving & processing) and human resource development.
ATUFS for technology up gradation in the industry
Besides launching a separate scheme to boost production in knitting and knitwear cluster at Ludhiana, Kolkata
and Tirupur, the government will also implement the Amended Technology Up-gradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS) for technology up-gradation of the textile industry. The scheme will incentivise production with an outlay of Rs.17,822 crore during 2016-2022. This will help the industry to not only attract investment worth Rs.1 lakh crore but also generate 35.62 lakhs jobs by 2022.
Government launched a special package of Rs.6,000 crore in 2016 to boost investment, employment and exports in the garmenting and made-ups sector. The package provided full refund to exporters under Remission of State Levies (ROSL) for the state level taxes. It also provided a production linked additional incentive of 10 per cent under the Amended Technology Up-gradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS).
Some of the other schemes launched by the government include: The National Handloom Development Programme; Comprehensive Handloom Cluster Development Scheme; Handloom Weaver Comprehensive Welfare Scheme; Yarn Supply Scheme; National Handicrafts Development Programme (NHDP) and Comprehensive Handicraft Cluster Development Schemes.
It also launched the Power Tex India - a comprehensive scheme for the powerloom sector; Silk Samagra – an integrated scheme for silk development; Jute ICARE scheme for increasing the income of farmers through different interventions and North East Region Textile Promotion Scheme (NERTPS) scheme for promoting textiles industry.
Scheme for SITPs
The Government is implementing the Scheme for Integrated Textile Park (SITP) which provides support for creation of world-class infrastructure facilities for setting up of textile units. Till date, 56 textile parks have been sanctioned under SITP which are under various stages of implementation.
