After the debt waiver scheme for farmers, the Union government is hoping to extend a similar scheme for handloom weavers.
The Union textiles ministry, which is pitching with the Cabinet for approving the scheme, has also revised the estimates of the debt-waiver at Rs 2,000 crore, against the initial estimate of Rs 1,200 crore.
The revised estimates have also been approved by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) , said Shankersinh Vaghela, Union ministry of textiles, on the occasion of the launch of a textiles expo organised by the National Handloom Development Corporation Ltd (NHDC) in Kolkata on Tuesday.
As the state governments were required to share 20 per cent of the burden under the scheme, the states had to be consulted before executing it, he said.
"We are in the final stages of discussions to execute the scheme," said Vaghela.
The minster also said, to meet the domestic demand for silk, cheaper silk from China was being imported to the country. Thus, the government would continue to impose 30 per cent anti-dumping duty on silk from China, he added.
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In the year 2006-07, the handloom sector produced 6,536 million square meters of textiles, an increase of 7.01 per cent over 2005-06.
In the year 2007-08, the country registered a 6.2 per cent increase in production at 6,944 million square meters.