Vaghela: Textiles sector poised for a major leap India : 13th July 2004

According to the Union Textiles Minister Shankersinh Vaghela, textiles sector will soon take giant strides and emerge as the biggest foreign exchange earner, akin to the Information Technology sector a few years back.He hailed the hailed the recent budgetary provisions for the textiles sector and claimed that theprovisions will help double Indian textile exports within a year."Abolition of the complete CENVAT chain and reduction in the Customs Duty on import of machinery will help double the textile exports within a year," the Minister said."The Indian textiles sector needs to equip itself to meet the increased international competition once the WTO trade barriers are removed," Vaghela said. "The Customs Duty reduction on import of machinery will help in introducing state-of-the art technology which will enable textiles production to match global standards," he added."By the abolishment of these taxes a revenue loss of about Rs 800 crore will be incurred, but we will find out different ways to recover these losses," informed Vaghela.He added that investments to the tune of over Rs 60,000 crore will flow into the textiles sector in the next five years for setting up of new capacity and for modernisation of the existing textile units."Investments will largely be made in the readymade garments sector and in setting up of apparel and garment parks," Vaghela said."The textiles sector will also create two lakh jobs every year," he stated.