The textile ministry to provide powerloom weavers yarn at concessional rate has formed two special purpose vehicles (SPVs) namely Ved Road Art Silk Small Scale Cooperative Federation Limited and Pandesara Weavers Cooperative Society Limited for setting up India’s first yarn bank under the Integrated Scheme for Powerloom Sector Development (ISPSD).
With the initial corpus fund of Rs 1 crore each, of which 50 per cent allocated by the centre and 50 per cent by the SPV these yarn banks will start for purchasing yarn from the open market and selling at concessional rates to its initial 1,000 member weavers.
With the setting up of yarn banks at the powerloom clusters of Ved Road and Pandesara, hundreds of small and medium powerloom weavers in Surat, the largest man-made fabric (MMF) centre of India will have direct access to polyester yarn at concessional rates.
According to the textile experts, the yarn banks will provide an opportunity to the weavers to arrest the price fluctuations and curb the presence of the middlemen, known for hoarding the yarn stocks and engineering artificial price hikes and shortages. Moreover, the yarn banks will allow the weavers to procure yarn on credit and repaying the amount in installments or adjusting against the quantity of yarn bought every month.