Textile Ministry requests extra money to fund powerlooms

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Dec 27, 2017

The Textiles Ministry of the Government of India is seeing an additional 33.27 crore rupees (approximately 5 million US dollars) to add to the 126.76 crore rupees (approximately 19 million dollars) it has been allotted for the Power Tex India Scheme.

The Textile Ministry has spent 83.08 crore rupees (approximately 12 million dollars) out of the total money allotted to their Power Tex India Scheme 2017-2018 up until this point. Smriti Irani, the Minister of Textiles, announced their demand for more funds earlier in the week in the Rajya Sabha and described their money they are requesting as supplementary demand for grants to fund powerlooms.

The Textiles Ministry has created a Yarn Bank Scheme as part of Power Text India and the aim is to allow consortiums to purchase yarn at wholesale rates and then sell the yarn to small scale weavers at a reasonable price. Irani stated that, over the past year, 48 yarn bank proposals and 118 group work shed proposals have been approved.

“Only two applications for group work sheds are pending,” added Irani.

The minister also mentioned in response to a question that there was no current proposal to enhance the capital subsidy for powerlooms from the present ten percent to 30 percent as has been requested. The Government of India will now decide whether or not to grant this extra funding.