The Hindu Business Line : Govt plans merger of two textile schemes

THE Government is considering merging the apparel parks for export and the Textile Centres Infrastructure Development (TCID) schemes to give the industry greater "flexibility" for investing on a higher scale to take advantage of the post-quota regime.

At a news conference here, the Textiles Minister, Mr Shankersinh Vaghela, said that while under the apparel parks scheme, the Centre provides assistance to the extent of Rs 17 crore, under the TCID scheme, it extends assistance up to Rs 20 crore in a particular centre. "It is also proposed to increase the level of assistance under the two schemes," to encourage more entrants.

Mr Vaghela said a dozen project proposals have been sanctioned for setting up apparel parks at various locations; of this five are expected to be operational by the end of 2005. The Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, inaugurated the first apparel park project on Sunday in Tirupur, Tamil Nadu. Further, he said 16 TCID project proposals have been sanctioned, with a sum of Rs 240 crore having been committed as Central share for these projects.

The Minister said by way of mid-course corrections to remove roadblocks in implementing these schemes, it is proposed to bring in public-private partnerships, besides modifying the schemes by proper targeting, aggressive marketing and implementation structure. Mr Vaghela said the UPA Government would endeavour to ensure a stable policy regime for the textile industry in the next four and a half years, so that the industry can invest substantially and consolidate the benefits being bestowed by the Government from time to time.

He was confident that the liberalised trading regime would result in increased international trade in textiles, thus providing more export outlets while exposing the domestic industry to import penetration in the domestic market. Hence, he said, "The industry will have to improve its efficiency and productivity to meet the emerging global competition."

Mr Vaghela said disbursement under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme during the first eight months of the current fiscal already touched Rs 1,144 crore, against last year's Rs 856 crore.

To a question on why the Duty Entitlement Passbook Scheme rates had been revised steeply downwards for cotton while the same had been jacked up for man-made fibre industries, the Secretary (Textiles), Mr Poornalingam, said that while the man-made fibre industries had to shell out excise duty, the natural fibre user industry producing cotton-based items is not governed by the Central Value-Added Tax (Cenvat). Hence the new revised rates were designed to compensate the man-made fibre industry, he said.

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