PDEXCIL Chairman, PK Vanga Hails Union Budget As A Boon To The Textile Sector

Trade & Policy

PDEXCIL Chairman, PK Vanga Hails Union Budget As A Boon To The Textile Sector

Purushottam K. Vanga, Chairman, PDEXCIL has welcomed and appreciated the Union Budget 2018-19 and said that, “the new budget has given encouragement to agriculture and allied sectors and focused on employment generation opportunities, especially for rural India.”

The Government had approved a comprehensive textile sector package of INR 6000 crore in 2016 to boost the apparel and made up segments and currently proposed to provide an outlay of INR 7148 crore for the textile sector in 2018-19. The budgetary allocation for ROSL has been increased from INR 1855 crores to Rs. 2164 crores. This increase will help the exporters of made-ups and apparels to clear the backlog and ease the working capital.

The fund allocation under TUF scheme has been enhanced to INR 2,300 crore for the year 2018-19, as against INR 2013 crore in the year 2017-18. The increase in fund allocation is appreciated, however more allocation was expected since TUF is a flagship scheme for technology upgrade in the field of textile and supported specially the small power loom entrepreneurs to enhance weaving technology and compete better in export market. The council has constantly demanded an increase of subsidy under ATUFS from 10% to 30% for the power loom sector.

Therefore it was expected from the Government that substantial fund will be allocated with an increase in subsidy. The proposals involving change in customs duty rates include silk fabrics under the HS Code 5007 from 10% to 20%, which is a highly encouraging move for the domestic silk fabric industry as it was really facing difficulty to compete with cheaper imported fabrics both in domestic as well as export markets. Chairman, PDEXCIL appreciates and would like to thank Government of India and Ministry of Textiles for the same, stated the release.

The Government has also allocated INR 3 lakh crore for Mudra Scheme which will ease the financial constraint faced by SME sector and will help small entrepreneurs to survive efficiently in this highly competitive industry. Encouragement is given to MSME sector by providing INR 3794 crore for credit support, capital and interest subsidy and innovation.

Contribution of 12% to EPF for new employees for three years by the Government in sectors employing large number of people like textile, leather and footwear (SME sector) and reducing women employees’ contribution to 8% for first 3 years of the employment against existing rate of 12% or 10% with no change in employer contribution is a welcome move.

Further the department of commerce will be developing a national logistics portal as a single window online marketing place to link all stakeholders. This will definitely help in ease of transportation and movement of goods/commodities and Indian exporters can further compete with other export markets, meaning those who have good logistic supports in their country.

“The present budget has come up with a boost to MSME sector and modernize infrastructural facilities, which will definitely guide us right direction in present era,” according to the Chairman, PDEXCIL.