A committee headed by a Nabard director has studied the weaver debt and submitted its report to the government. The finance ministry and the Planning Commission members are scheduled to meet this week to take a decision, union minister for textiles Shankarsinh Vaghela said here on Tuesday.
The loan and interest components would amount to about Rs 1,200 crore, he said, adding the issue had been taken up with the Prime minister and the finance minister to extend the scheme at the earliest. The report is being revised for arriving at the final figure.
Vaghela said the ministry had asked the government to consider removing the 14 per cent customs duty on cotton imports to support the industry. This year, cotton production is expected to touch 33 million bales of which about 10 million bales would exported to China and other countries.
"The textile sector is a sunrise industry and we want to maximise the employment and the forex earnings,'' he said. The Centre has asked state governments to extend power subsidies to powerlooms and also make labour laws more liberal to attract more workforce. Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra are in the forefront in extending these incentives.
The ministry has recently started three National Institutes of Fashion Technology at Shillong, Bhopal and Patna. One more would come up through a private partnership in Mauritius. It has also agreed to start integrated textile parks at Visakhapatnam, Mahboobnagar, Anantapur, Pochampalli and Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. The government would extend up to Rs 40 crore subsidy for setting up these integrated textile parks, Vaghela said.
