The Ministry of Textiles is backing a 22 per cent upward revision of the minimum support price (MSP) for raw jute with an eye on increasing the overall productivity of the fibre and augmenting the area under cultivation.
Union textile minister Dayanidhi Maran said, “Although the government has increased the jute MSP by 50 per cent over the last five years, the ministry of textiles completely supports the proposal for an increase of another Rs 300 a quintal.” He however did not indicate as to when the hike would come into effect.
Currently, the MSP for raw jute is Rs 1,375 a quintal.
“The rise in MSP will encourage farmers to not just cultivate jute as an alternative crop but will also help increase the acreage. The government is concerned about the 4 million farmer families that are involved in this sector,” he added.
However, Maran did not shy away from criticising an increasingly stagnant domestic jute industry and implored to undertake rapid modernisation to remain internationally competitive.
“The industry is a little lethargic as it is assured of the demand from the government because of which many mills are not upgrading their machinery. The same machine that the British introduced are still being used. The industry has to move forward and look at diversification and value addition,” he said.
Under the Jute Technology Mission (JTM), Rs 20 crore has been earmarked for the development of modernised machinery, while Rs 80 crore has been allocated for subsidy to mills acquiring new machinery.
“There is a bottleneck in the scheme for acquisition of machinery regarding the cap on subsidy. We have taken up the matter with the finance ministry to raise the subsidy from Rs 70 lakh to Rs 3.5 crore for every mill,” Maran said. As for the proposed National Fibre Policy (NFP), the minister said that an effort would be made to bridge the tax and duty structure disparity between man-made and natural fibres. “We want to create a level-playing field through a comprehensive policy. The NFP should be ready by the end of this year,” he said.
Hasten jute land allocation process
Textile minister Dayanidhi Maran on Wednesday pressed the West Bengal government to hasten the process for land-use permission for three jute parks in the state.
Of the three parks, two are being promoted by the West Bengal Small Industries Development Corporation (WBSIDC) at Murshidabad and Coochbehar while another is being undertaken by a private entity at Shaktigarh in Burdwan.
“The jute parks have not yet taken off because of problems in transfer of land from promoters to the SPVs. I urge the state government to expedite the process,” Maran said.
The ministry has allocated Rs 60 crore to develop jute parks nationwide, including five in West Bengal. Each park would need 25-30 acres.
