World trade in textiles and clothing touched US$ 530 billion in 2006, compared to US$ 483 billion in 2005. This was informed by the Minister of State for Textiles, Shri E.V.K.S. Elangovan, informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question by Shri Janardhana Poojary.
India's share in the world trade in textiles & clothing during the last three years is as follows: • 2004 - 2.99% Share • 2005 - 3.66% Share • 2006 - 3.68% Share
The Minister further informed that Indian textiles and clothing industry has been trying to utilise its full potential to cater to international demand for quality textile products. However, the textiles and clothing industry has been reporting certain constraints such as high power and transaction costs, poor port facilities, high raw-material prices, un-rebated taxes and duties, high excise duty, high customs duty on raw-materials and inadequate product basket which can cater to the demands of sophisticated international markets. In order to strengthen the Indian textiles industry to meet the emerging global competition, the Government has been taking a series of measures which, inter-alia, include:-
(i) To improve productivity and quality of cotton for manufacture and export of competitive downstream textile products, Government has launched the Technology Mission on Cotton (TMC). The Mission has achieved success in increasing the productivity and reducing the contamination through upgradation of cotton market yards and modernisation of Ginning & Pressing factories.
(ii) The Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) was launched to facilitate the modernisation and upgradation of the textile industry both in the organised and unorganized sector. The Scheme has been further fine tuned to increase the rapid investments in the targeted sub-sectors of the textile industry. The cost of machinery has been further brought down by reducing the customs duty on imports.
(iii) For speedy modernisation of the textile processing sector, Government has introduced w.e.f. 20.04.05, a credit linked capital subsidy scheme @10% under TUFS, in addition to the existing 5% interest reimbursement.
marketing@alchempro.com
