National Fibre Policy to take birth by year-end

The Centre is expected to finalise the much awaited ‘National Fibre Policy’ by the end of this year. That will remove the disparity in taxation and pricing of various fibres in the country.

“Proposed ‘National Fibre Policy’ is now in the public domain for feedback. The Union government is expected to finalise the policy by the end of December,” V Srinivas, joint secretary, Ministry of Textiles said.

Despite a huge production base of natural fibres like cotton, wool and jute along with man-made fibres, Indian textile industry is losing its share in the global market. The proposed policy is expected to iron out the disparities in taxation structure and pricing with a composite policy on exports.

On the textile exports from the country, Srinivas said the ministry was hopeful of achieving a $25 billion exports during the present financial year.

“As far as exports are concerned, yarn exports is doing pretty well and all councils are showing over 20 per cent growth on a year-on-year basis. Though apparel exports have been showing a negative trend, it’s not the case for ready-made-garment (RMG) segment. So, we should achieve $25 billion export target by end of this fiscal,” he said on the sidelines of an event to announce the extension of ‘scheme for integrated textile park’ (SITP) here.

He also said, the government was receiving encouraging response for the SITP.

The Centre recently gave an extension to SITP in its bid to create more textile parks. As per the scheme, government provides assistance up to Rs40 crore for each textile park.

“We have received encouraging response for our textile park scheme. As of now, 25 greenfield projects have come up of the 40 projects approved by the Centre,” Srinivas said.

He said Karantaka had given a proposal to open four integrated textile parks.

On the recent decision to allow cotton exports, he said cotton security policy would ensure adequate availability of cotton for domestic consumption. “While domestic consumption of cotton is estimated to be around 26.6 million bales, the production is estimated to be around 32.5 million bales this season. So, there will be enough supply of cotton for domestic consumption and cotton security policy will ensure its availability,” Srinivas added.