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Union Budget Showers Bounty on Indian Technical Textile Sector

17 Mar '12

3 min read

Technical Textiles:

In many of the budgetary announcements made for the textile sector, specifically on Technical Textiles, the Finance Minister - Mr Pranab Mukherjee, has reduced basic customs duty on raw materials for manufacturing of adult diapers from 10 and 7.5 percent to 5 percent with CVD of 6 percent and special CVD has been withdrawn.

He has allocated Rs 500 crore to start a pilot scheme in the Twelfth Five-Year-Plan for promotion and application of geo-textiles in the North-East region of India.

Mr Pranab Mukherjee has also exempted payment of customs duty on imports of aramid yarn and fabric used for the manufacturing of bulletproof helmets.

Machinery:

Further, the government has exempted custom duty on imports of automatic shuttle-less looms.

Basic customs duty of 5 percent would be levied on imports of new automatic silk reeling and other specified textile machinery. Second-hand machinery would now attract basic duty of 7.5 percent.

Clusters:

A powerloom mega cluster will be set up in Ichalkaranji in Maharashtra at a cost of Rs 70 crore. Additionally, Weavers' Service Centres will be set up in Mizoram, Nagaland and Jharkhand for providing technical support to poor handloom weavers.

Mr Mukherjee also announced setting up of handloom clusters in Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand in addition to the four mega handloom clusters already in operation.

The Finance Minister has also pledged assistance in setting up of dormitories for women workers in five mega clusters relating to handloom, powerloom and leather sectors.

Waiver of Loans

He also revealed that the Government has recently announced a financial package of Rs 3,884 crore for waiver of loans of handloom weavers and their cooperative societies.

Benefits to MSMEs

In order to boost the growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Mr Mukherjee has proposed to set up a Rs 5,000 crore 'India Opportunities Venture Fund' with SIDBI, in order to enhance availability of equity to MSME sector.

He informed that, two SME exchanges have been launched in Mumbai recently, to enable Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to have greater access to finance.

With the objective of promoting market access of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs), the government has approved a policy which requires Ministries and CPSEs to purchase a minimum of 20 percent of their annual procurement from MSEs.

Of this, four percent will be earmarked for procurement from MSEs owned by SC/ST entrepreneurs.

TechnicalTextile.Net