Come out with an integrated textile policy, say mills

With prices of yarn and cotton maintaining stability, textile mills in this region today appealed to the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government to announce comprehensive textile policy to achieve envisaged growth rate.
The textile industry could not achieve the envisaged growth rate in the last five years mainly due to "various short-sighted" policies adopted by earlier government, relating to cotton, cotton yarn, export incentives and financial levies, T Rajkumar, Chairman, Southern India Mills Association, told reporters here.
However, the industry could mitigate all challenges and is fully geared up for making fresh investments enhancing value addition and modernisation, Rajkumar said.

He appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review the draft recommendations of the Ajay Shankar Committee and announce a new integrated textile policy at the earliest to have a win-win strategy across the value chain apart from creating a level playing field for all sectors in globalised environment.
The demands to the Centre included issues relating to Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme, cotton price stabilisation fund consisting of seven per cent of interest subvention, reduction of margin money from 25 per cent to 10 per cent and increasing credit limit from three months to eight months, Rajkumar said.
He also wanted implementation of the Goods and Services Tax at the earliest, so that the textile industry in Tamil Nadu could take advantage.

Rajkumar requested state chief minister Jayalalithaa to announce a new textile policy to enable the industry to compete with cotton growing states like Gujarat and Maharashtra.