Textile industry welcomes announcement of Mission on Cotton Productivity

The removal of Customs Duty on two types of shuttleless looms is a welcome move for the technical textiles sector.
| Photo Credit: File Photo

The textile and apparel sector has welcomed the announcements in the Union budget, especially the announcement of Mission on Cotton Productivity.

Vijay Agarwal, chairman of The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council, said the proposal to set up an Export Promotion Mission, with sectoral and ministerial targets, will provide the much needed inter-ministerial co-ordination. The Council remains confident in achieving the goal of $25 billion in cotton textile exports by 2030, he added.

According to Sudhir Sekhri, chairman AEPC, the budget seeks to create a foundation for robust export growth encouraging innovation and competitiveness, particularly for the MSME sector. The measures announced will help the apparel sector compete globally by promoting Five F vision and “Make in India, Make for the World” initiative. A. Sakthivel, chairman of the Apparel, Made Ups, and Home Textiles Sector Skill Council, said the budget will be impactful and will bring growth.

Chairman of the Manmade and Technical Textiles Export Promotion Council Bhadresh Dodhia said the increased fund allocation for key government schemes such as RoDTEP (Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Goods), RoSCTL (Rebate on State and Central Taxes and Levies), and Production-Linked Incentive scheme for textiles will boost the export potential of manmade fibre textiles and technical textiles.

The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry chairman Rakesh Mehra said the introduction of the new Income Tax regime will increase disposable income with people and enhance domestic consumption of textiles and clothing.

S.K. Sundararaman, chairman of the Southern India Mills’ Association, said the cotton is the growth engine and strength of Indian textile industry accounting for almost 80% of the textile exports. The industry has been demanding for a Cotton Technology Mission supporting high yielding seed technology, adoption of global best agronomy practices, producing clean cotton and branding Indian cotton to benefit the farmers and the industry. The announcement of ₹600 crore to improve productivity and sustainability of cotton, promote ELS cotton and best of science and technology to cotton farmer on a mission mode approach will give a thrust to the cotton sector.

According to K.M. Subramanian, president of the Tiruppur Exporters’ Association, higher import duty on knitted fabrics will curb the influx of undervalued fabrics and benefit the local manmade fibre-based industry.

The South India Hosiery Manufacturers Association president A.C. Eswaran said the Mission on Cotton will benefit the cotton-based textile sector in the long run.

Sanjay K. Jain, chairman of the ICC National Textiles Committee, said the overall impact of the budget on the textile sector will be positive and textiles is pre-dominantly in the MSME segment with many women entrepreneurs. Hence, all schemes announced for the MSMEs will benefit the sector.

Manish Daga of CottonGuru said promotion of extra long staple cotton through the Mission will increase the global competitiveness of the cotton sector and increase in kisan credit card limit will give farmers better access to funds.

Convenor of the Indian Texpreneurs Federation Prabhu Dhamodharan said the Mission on Cotton is a vital initiative for the textile sector as it will increase cotton productivity and boost farmers’ income.

G. Arulmozhi, president of the Openend Spinning Mills Association, said the removal of Customs Duty on two types of shuttleless looms is a welcome move for the technical textiles sector.

M.P. Muthurathinam, president, Tirupur Exporters and Manufacturers Association, expressed disappointment for lack of measures to control imports from Bangladesh.