The government on Wednesday approved production-linked incentives for the textile industry, which it said could garner ₹19,000 crore in private sector investments and create at least 750,000 new jobs.
The move aims to make Indian textiles more competitive in international markets after ceding ground to countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam.
The government will offer incentives of ₹10,683 crore over five years to textile makers, Union ministers Anurag Thakur and Piyush Goyal told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
The scheme focuses on synthetic textiles, where India lacks global competitiveness and specialty textiles that are used in aerospace, automotive, construction, marine and medical sectors.
“Leveraging economies of scale, the scheme will help Indian companies emerge as global champions,” Goyal said. The scheme, the government said, will help create more than 750,000 direct jobs and many more in ancillaries.
It is expected to pave the way for the participation of women in large numbers, result in fresh investments of more than ₹19,000 crore and additional sales of more than ₹3 trillion over five years, Goyal said. Priority will be accorded to investment in backward districts and small towns. The scheme will benefit Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha, said an official statement.
The scheme offers two kinds of investment opportunities. One of them is for large integrated units, where the minimum investment is ₹300 crore in the plant, machinery and civil works, excluding land costs. In the second category, investors have to put in at least ₹100 crore to participate. Textiles is one of 13 sectors where PLI schemes were announced during Union Budget 2021-22 with an outlay of ₹1.97 trillion to give a boost to domestic manufacturing. The schemes are expected to result in incremental production in these 13 sectors to around ₹37.5 trillion over five years and offer new jobs to nearly 10 million people in the same period.
In a separate decision, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved an increase in the minimum support prices (MSP) for all mandated Rabi crops for the 2022-23 marketing season.
The highest absolute increase in minimum support price over the previous year was recommended for lentil (masur), rapeseed and mustard (by ₹400 per quintal each), followed by gram (by ₹130 per quintal) and safflower (by ₹114 per quintal). The measure is also aimed at encouraging crop diversification.
The increase in MSP for Rabi crops for the 2022-23 season is in line with the Union budget of 2018-19, which fixed MSPs at a level of at least 1.5 times the all-India weighted average cost of production, aiming at a reasonably fair remuneration for the fanners.
The expected returns to farmers over their cost of production are estimated to be highest for wheat and rapeseed and mustard (100% each), followed by lentil (79%), gram (74%), barley (60%) and safflower (50%).
Concerted efforts were made over the last few years to realign MSPs in favour of oilseeds, pulses and coarse cereals to encourage farmers to put larger areas under these crops and adopt the best technologies and farm practices to boost output.
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