At least nine states have submitted proposals for setting up Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) parks announced in the Union Budget for 2021-22, Darshana Vikram Jardosh, minister of state for textiles & railways, said on Wednesday. The states that have shown interest are Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana. Proposals are expected from many other states, she added.
The Centre has planned to invest around Rs 4,445 crore by 2027-28 to develop these parks with world-class infrastructure, including plug-and-play facility for investors in the sector. The Centre has asked the state governments to send their proposals for the establishment of textile parks under PM MITRA by March 15.
Speaking at a webinar organized by the Confederation of Indian Textiles Industry (CITI) on man-made Fibre (MMF), the minister said that MMF accounts for 60-65% of the total textile trade globally. MMF has overtaken natural fibre in terms of consumption in the last decade. In contrast, cotton continues to dominate the textile and apparel sector in India and accounts for more than 60% of the total trade. India’s contribution in MMF is very small as compared to China, despite the fact that India is the world’s second largest producer of polyester and viscose, she said. The new Mega Mitra scheme will help bring in investments in the sector on a large scale, she said. The government has set a target of $ 100 billion exports in textiles by 2025-26 and MMF can play a major role in this, the minister said. China’s share in MMF textiles (as of 2019) is 38%, while new entrants Bangladesh and Vietnam have already mopped up 9% and 6% share, respectively.
In the last few years, the government has taken several steps to encourage MMF, including scrapping the anti-dumping duty (ADD) on viscose staple fibre (VSF), a man-made cellulosic fibre, purified terephthalic acid (PTA), a key raw material to make polyester staple fibre and acrylic fibre. The government also announced a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for textiles with focus on MMF and technical textiles was announced, involving incentives worth Rs 10,683 crore, the minister said. Army clothes, balloons, furnishings and technical textiles will get a boost through this scheme, she mentioned.
This was quickly followed by the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP) scheme to reduce the tax burden on exporters and make them more competitive in exports, the minister said. The government is in the process of signing free trade agreements (FTAs) with major countries such as the UAE, which was signed recently. The FTA is India’s first comprehensive trade agreement in a decade and under the deal, duty is eliminated on 80% of tariff lines and it is expected to bring in $2 billion revenues in the next five years, according to the minister. India is also in the process of working on FTAs with Australia, the UK and Canada. India still has a long way to go and has to compete with countries strong in MMF such as China, Korea and Taiwan, she said.
