‘The achhe din’ for the textile sector has started to arrive, textile minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said, as the Narendra Modi govenrment completes one year. The centre has set a target of 47.5 billion US Dollar for textile and clothing exports for the current fiscal year, aiming for an almost 14 per cent rise in outbound shipments from the actual level of 2014-15.
The country’s overall textile and garment exports grew roughly 5 per cent to 41.4 billion US Dollar against the official target of 45 billion US Dollar for 2014-15, a textile ministry official said. Earlier, quick estimates had showed that the exports during the April-February period went up by nearly 2 per cent from a year before.
With demand from China remaining tepid and the government withdrawing certain export incentives to the sector, the shipment target for the current fiscal would be hard to achieve, especially in view of stiff competition from countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The textile ministry has sought a quick resolution of the India-EU free trade agreement, which would pave the way for duty-free access of Indian textile and garment items to the EU, which account for more than a third of the country’s garment exports, the official said.
Similarly, the ministry has asked for the continuation of the interest subvention scheme, which was withdrawn from late 2014, to boost exports.
According to Industry executives, under the scheme, certain segments like the SMEs, handlooms, handicrafts and garments, were entitled to a 3 per cent interest subvention on export credit. The industry wants certain incentives to capture markets in countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Currently domestic textile exporters are given a 2 per cent export incentive for outbound shipments only to the US, the EU, Canada and Japan — the markets where the appetite is far more for garments than for textiles.
