India's textile exports are unlikely to achieve its previous year’s figures of $40 billion owing to rising raw material prices, says Naren Goenka, Chairman, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC). The rise cannot be passed on to the consumers as it is around 125 per cent, Goenka says. The rise is more concentrated in Western countries whose consumers are buying more essentials, he adds.
Many cotton spinning mills in South India have shut down due to availability and price issues. Cotton prices increased to Rs 90,000 per candy in March 2021, owing to 11 per cent import duty levied on the raw material. Union Minister Piyush Goyal has cautioned export should not be at the cost of the domestic industry, which is the largest generator of employment in the country.
The government plans to launch the second Production-Linked Incentive Scheme for the textile amid the rise in cotton prices and mills in southern India. In March, the government had issued a notification to set up textile parks under the PM MITRA (Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel) scheme, to create an integrated textiles value chain right from spinning, weaving, processing, dyeing and printing to garment manufacturing at one location. The scheme aims to generate one lakh direct and two lakh indirect jobs per park. The Centre is planning to set up seven MITRA parks with a total outlay of Rs 4,445 crore.
