Tamil Nadu to frame new textile policy to boost growth

The Tamil Nadu government would soon frame a new textile policy keeping in view demands and suggestions from textile industry representatives to boost growth, the state handlooms and textile minister OS Manian has said. Declining to offer a timeframe for the policy announcement, he said he would take up the issue with chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.

 
Finance minister D Jayakumar would raise the problems faced by the sector in the goods and services tax (GST) council meeting scheduled on August 5 as the textile industry in Tiruppur and Coimbatore had been hit after GST implementation, Manian told reporters after attending a meeting in Coimbatore recently.
 
Tiruppur textile unit owners have been demanding a GST rate reduction from 18 per cent to 5 per cent for job working units and to 12 per cent for man-made fibre textile products. The Tiruppur Exporters' Association (TEA), in a representation made to the chief minister in July, had urged the state government to announce a new textile policy that enhances growth and investment.

The new policy should provide 8 per cent interest subsidy and 10 per cent capital subsidy to modernise or expand garment units, the TEA urged in its representation. Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan have already announced new textile policies.
 
Meanwhile, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations has requested the minister to set up a textiles export promotion board, a technical textile park and an integrated textiles park, and offer marketing support for the industry.
 
The Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF) had also urged the Tamil Nadu government in April this year to introduce a three-year textile policy to support the industry. (DS)