Indian cotton textile exports have grown by 26.8pc in 2018-19 during the months of April to September 2018. During this period, exports of cotton textiles (raw cotton, yarn, fabrics, and made-ups) touched US$ 6235 million as compared to US$ 4917 million in 2017-18.
Ms Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Textile Minister emphasized that The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL) should look at propagating growth of the MSME sector. She further stated that it was for the first time that banking institutions were directed to give in principle approvals to loans in 59 minutes. She urged the industry to take the benefit of ATUF scheme, as provided under the special package of Rs. 6,000 crore for the made-ups and garments sector. She assured that the Ministry of Textiles would provide all types of support to the cotton textile sector in increasing exports.
TEXPROCIL has proposed to include cotton yarn under the MEIS. The Cotton yarn is a value-added product with a lot of value addition taking place within the country. The MEIS for fabrics also needed to be increased from 2% to 4%. TEXPROCIL would also request the Government to include Cotton yarn and fabrics under the ROSL scheme.
Ms Ujwal Lahoti, Chairman of the TEXPROCIL stated that the ongoing trade war between the US and China is going to open new opportunities for the cotton textile exports from India and when it does, we should be ready. The Government was also in the process of putting in place alternate schemes to promote exports which would improve the competitiveness of the products. These alternate schemes were expected to be WTO compatible.
Furthermore, he welcomed the package for the MSME sector. Interest subvention on pre-shipment and post-shipment finance for exports by MSMEs has been increased from 3% to 5%. These measures would provide much-needed support to the MSME sector, which contributes significantly to the textiles exports. Under the package, GST – registered MSMEs would get 2% interest rebate on incremental loan up to Rs. 1 crore.
