Plan strategies to tackle problems: Government to textile industry

Amid weakening rupee, the Union government has said that domestic textile industry has to come up with strategies to tackle its problems. It said that state governments need to be pressurised by the industry for its needs.

AK Singh, secretary, Ministry of Textiles, said, “There are uncertainties due to fluctuation in currency. We have to find out strategies which should not only be from the government but also from the industry too.”

Last year has been quite bad for the industry due to rupee appreciation and this year, Singh added, the scenario is reversed with a sharply depreciating rupee. “Currency fluctuation is not in our hands,” he said.

Industry has to adopt to three kinds of strategies —short, medium and long, he said. “For the short term, industry may not have a bigger role to play as government gives incentives,” added Singh.

Under medium-term strategy, industry needs good infrastructure. He said that for this, already 35 integrated textiles parks have been approved in the previous five-year Plan and in the current plan, so far, 10 parks have been approved. But expressing concerns on the progress, Singh said, “In some of the parks, progress is slow. Units should come up. Industry needs to give a push.”

On the long term strategy, he said issues like high power and transaction cost are more related to the state governments. “Unfortunately, on this front we (central government) are not being supported by the industry. Industry needs to put pressure on the state governments,” he added.