Talking about SAMARTH Scheme, the minister said that 71 textile manufacturers, 10 industry associations, 13 state government agencies and 4 sectoral organisations have been on-boarded to help skill development and training of ~3.45 lakh beneficiaries. Steps have been taken to on-board weavers on GeM platform to enable them to sell their products directly to the government. About 1.50 lakh weavers have been on-boarded, he added.

Minister Goyal further said that robust export numbers will help India realise the dream of ‘Local goes Global; Make in India for the world’. He informed that textiles export increased by 45 per cent, to $16.7 billion in Apr-Nov 2021 compared to the same period in Apr-Nov 2019.

The minister also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for the decision to defer the increase of tax slab from 5 per cent to 12 per cent for textiles, taken in the 46^th meeting of GST council. He added that the requests of industry stakeholders were considered in present challenging times when the sector is on the path of recovery.

Talking about several transformational reforms to realise vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat and solidify India’s position on the global textiles map, the minister said that step by step we have strengthened textile ecosystem of the nation to fully utilise our competitive and comparative advantage. He said from weavers to women entrepreneurs, every segment has been empowered by these steps.

Referring to PLI Scheme for textiles, he said that PLI will increase the global footprint of India in MMF and technical textiles. The ₹10,683-crore scheme will create 7.5 lakhs direct Jobs.

He also said that the approval for 7 PM Mega Integrated Textile Region & Apparel (PM MITRA) Parks will attract cutting edge technology, investment and generate ~1 lakh direct and ~2 lakh indirect employment per park.

Minister Goyal stated that continuation of RoSCTL scheme up to March 2024 will boost export competitiveness. He said RoDTEP for textiles products other than apparel and made ups have been covered in RoSCTL. Removal of anti-dumping duty on several key raw material e.g. PTA, viscose staple fibre, acrylic, nylon is a boost to manmade fibre based textiles industry, he added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)