The Minister of State for Textiles, Shri E.V.K.S. Elangovan, informed the Lok Sabha of the steps taken by the Centre to promote exports of textiles and clothing, including cotton items:
i) 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment is allowed in the textile sector under the automatic route.
ii) The Government has de-reserved the readymade garments, hosiery and knitwear from the SSI sector.
iii) The Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) has been made operational from 1-4-1999 to facilitate the modernisation and upgradation of the sector.
iv) To improve the productivity and quality of cotton, Government has launched Technology Mission on Cotton (TMC). The mission comprises four mini-missions, which are being jointly implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Textiles.
One of the important ingredients of the Mission is to improve cotton processing facilities by upgrading/modernizing the existing ginning and pressing facilities and setting up of new market yards/improvement of existing market yards.
v) Ministry of Textiles has recast the Textile Centres Infrastructure Development Scheme (TCIDS) and Apparel Parks for Exports Scheme (APES) for speeding up the implementation of the Schemes and to actualize the vision of attaining export target of $50 billion by 2010. This scheme is based on Public – Private Partnership (PPP) and envisages engaging of a professional agency for project execution.
vi) The fiscal duty structure has been generally rationalised to achieve growth and maximum value addition within the country. Except for mandatory excise duty on man-made filament yarns and man-made staple fibres, the whole value addition chain has been given excise exemption option.
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