No shortage of cotton and yarn in country, says Tamta

There is no shortage of cotton and yarn in the country, and the Central Government reviews the cotton availability position from time to time, minister of state for textiles Ajay Tamta has said. Adequate availability of cotton is ensured through domestic production and textile mills are able to source their requirement of cotton from the domestic market.

“Government of India had directed Cotton Corporation of India Ltd to sell its stock of cotton (cotton season 2015-16), purchased under minimum support price (MSP), to spinning mills in the micro small medium enterprise (MSME) category to contain fluctuation in cotton prices,” Tamta said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

The minister also provided details of policy initiatives, schemes, incentives, subsidies, working capital/interest subvention that are being provided to the domestic manufacturers and exporters.

He said the Government has been implementing various policy initiatives and schemes like Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS), Schemes for the development of the powerloom sector, Schemes for technical textiles, Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP) and Scheme for Integrated Textile Processing Development (IPDS) to enable the textile industry, including the small industries, to upgrade and make them competitive.

The Government has also launched a Rs 6,000 crore Scheme for Production and Employment Linked Support for Garmenting Units (SPELSGU) under Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS) to incentivise production and employment generation in the garmenting Sector. These initiatives and schemes will help in the development of the downstream value added segments which in turn will create increased demand for yarn and thereby lead to increased production of yarn. 

Special packages for apparel and made-ups sector were introduced in June, 2016 and December, 2016 respectively, which include schemes like ATUFS, Pradhan Mantri Paridhan Rojgar Protsahan Yojna (PMPRPY) and Scheme of Rebate of State Levies (RoSL) on export of garments.

The scope of Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS) under new Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20 has been expanded since October 29, 2015 to 110 new tariff lines and increasing rates or country coverage or both for 2,228 existing tariff lines.