Cabinet approves PLI scheme; SIMA & ITF hail

"The PLI scheme will be implemented by the concerned ministries/departments and will be within the overall financial limits prescribed. The final proposals of PLI for individual sectors will be appraised by the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) and approved by the Cabinet. Savings, if any, from one PLI scheme of an approved sector can be utilised to fund that of another approved sector by the Empowered Group of Secretaries," an official release said.

For 'Textile Products: MMF segment and technical textiles', financial outlay of ₹10,683 crore has been approved for a five-year period.

The Indian textile industry is one of the largest in the world and has a share of ~5 per cent of global exports in textiles and apparel. But India's share in the manmade fibre (MMF) segment is low in contrast to the global consumption pattern, which is majorly in this segment. "The PLI scheme will attract large investment in the sector to further boost domestic manufacturing, especially in the MMF segment and technical textiles," the release said.

Welcoming the new scheme, SIMA chairman Ashwin Chandran said "India has proved its capability by becoming the second largest manufacturer of PPE within a period of two months, which enabled the country to protect the people of the nation and the world from the COVID-19 pandemic. Under these circumstances, the scheme would greatly benefit the industry to attract huge investments and create jobs for millions of people."

"Around 40 HS lines in MMF garments and 10 HS lines in technical textiles account around $180 billion global trade and therefore, the scheme would encourage the industry to make investment in the manufacturing of these high value-added products," Chandran said in a press release. He thanked the Prime Minister and the Union textiles minister for including textile industry in the PLI scheme and allocating budget for improving manufacturing capabilities and boosting exports.

"The PLI scheme will help the Indian apparel sector to build the much-needed scale. It will also bring specialisation as a strategy to garner focus on top MMF products which are in great demand globally. MMF apparels is a ₹3 lakh crore opportunity in the US market alone," said ITF convenor Prabhu Dhamodharan. "We are confident that the Indian apparel sector will use this opportunity to build capabilities in MMF sector to achieve double digit growth in exports."

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)