Indian textiles and clothing industry, the second largest employment provider, next only to agriculture, providing jobs to around 11 crores people, is predominantly MSME in nature. The NDA Government led by Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri.Narendra Modi has been giving major thrust for strengthening the MSME segments. The pathbreaking initiatives taken for the MSMEs are significant relaxation in the eligibility criteria for MSME by increasing the asset value of Rs.50 crores and annual sales turnover of Rs.250 crores and the said measures have enabled more than 80% of the textile manufacturing units in the country to get qualified under MSME category. This has greatly benefited the industry during lockdown and post-lockdown periods.
In a Press Release issued here today, Dr.S.K.Sundararaman, Chairman, The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has stated that employment, skilling and MSMEs being the major themes of the Union Budget, the various announcements relating to these areas would benefit the labour intensive textile industry. He has said that the industry has been demanding the Government to announce a separate scheme for credit guarantee facility, as the highly vulnerable textile industry has been often facing financial stress due to external factors. He has said that the industry has been reeling under long drawn recession since April 2022. He has welcomed the announcement of Credit Guarantee Scheme for MSMEs and facilitating term loans for purchase of machinery and equipment without collateral or third-party guarantee cover upto Rs.100 crores while the loan amount may be larger. He has also welcomed the mechanism for facilitating the continuation of bank credit to MSMEs during their stressed period while being in SMA stage for the reasons beyond their control to continue their business and avoid getting into the NPA stage.
SIMA chairman has welcomed the announcement of reducing the BCD on Methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) used for the manufacture of spandex yarn from 7.5% to 5% to address the duty inversion, enhancing the global competitiveness of textile goods manufacturers using such yarn. He has said that use of spandex yarn has been increasing exponentially and hoped that the domestic manufacturers of spandex yarn would pass on the benefit to the downstream sectors.
SIMA chairman has welcomed the allocations granted by the Finance Ministry for exports i.e., RoDTEP and RoSCTL with an increase of 5.8% and 10% for the year 2024-24 as compared to 2023-24, a much-needed boost when the textile exports are on the downward trend due to various external factors.
Dr.Sundararaman has lauded the Employment Linked Incentive Scheme that would reimburse EPFO contributions of employers upto Rs.3000/- per month for two years for the new recruits. He has welcomed the announcement of one month wage to new entrants in all formal sectors in three installments upto Rs.15,000/-.
Various announcements made for strengthening the infrastructure facilities like road, port, water ways, airport, etc., would reduce the logistics and transaction cost and thereby enhance the global competitiveness. The announcement made for agriculture would benefit the cotton farmers to improve their productivity, increase the area under natural farming, etc., and thereby the predominantly cotton based textile industry would be the beneficiary. The increase in limit of MUDRA loans from Rs.10 lakhs to Rs.20 lakhs would benefit small traders, handloom and power loom weavers in the textile industry, says SIMA chairman. He said that announcement of 12 industrial parks with plug and play facility, rental housing with dormitory type accommodation in PPP mode would also benefit the textile industry. He has said that the announcements made with regard to energy security, innovation, research and development and regular allocations made for textile industry towards TUF Scheme, skill development, PLI, NTTM and PM-MITRA Park would enable the industry to march ahead.