New textile policy framed for Gujarat

Trade & Policy

New textile policy framed for Gujarat

The Gujarat government notified its Textile Policy 2012 ahead of this year's cotton season, which is expected to give a bumper crop as a result of good rains. "We have completed all the administrative and legal work and issued notification for the roll-out of the policy," said state finance minister Nitin Patel.

"Gujarat is the largest producer of cotton in the country, but most of our cotton goes out and due to irregular policies of the central government on cotton exports, farmers of the state have not been getting due price," Patel said. "Due to this, we have decided to bring the new textile policy, which aims to promote ginning, processing, yarn production, spinning, cloth manufacturing and ready-made garment making. This will help the farmers get better value of their cotton production," Patel said.

The Gujarat government had announced the Textile Policy 2012 on September 5 last year. Ahmedabad, which was considered as Manchester of the country due to presence of hundreds of textile mills here, also witnessed their disintegration. Gujarat is now lagging behind many other states, including Tamil Nadu in textile industry.

Under the new policy, Gujarat government has declared a slew of incentives to infuse new life to textile industry in the state. The policy aims at starting cotton spinning and weaving parks around cotton growing areas of the state. In the policy, the state government has announced five per cent interest subsidy on bank loans for five years for those who establish new plants for value addition chain like ginning, processing, weaving, knitting, machine carpeting.

It also announced seven per cent interest subsidy on new plant and machinery for five years for cotton spinning, garment manufacturing and technology up-gradation. Under the new policy, the state government will give refund of Value Added Tax (VAT) on expansion of new units in spinning and ready-made garments.

The government has also decided to give power tariff concession to cotton spinning and weaving units; financial assistance for skill development centers; to the textile industry; for technology acquisition and also for supporting energy and water conservation as well as for environmental compliance. Bumper cotton production is expected this time due to good rains this monsoon. However, heavy rains in the last few days have resulted in damage to some crop.