India Will Aim To Achieve $100 Bn Export Target For Textiles By 2030: Goyal

Commerce, industry and textiles minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said India will aim to achieve $100 billion exports for textiles by 2030 as there are huge opportunities in the sector.

Goyal’s comments come in the backdrop of faltering outbound shipments of textiles over the last one quarter amid recessionary trends in the developed economies.

The sector is set to get from the slew of trade deals that India is set to sign. In the free trade agreements (FTA) that India has been looking to finalise, negotiators have been insisting on duty-free access for textiles.

Citing the case of the FTA negotiations with the United Kingdom, Goyal said the country had a 9 per cent duty on different items and if that goes away, it will benefit the sector, he said.

India has already signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with the United Arab Emirates and Australia, in which the textile industry believes will benefit them. Apart from that, India is looking to sign trade deals where labour intensive sectors such as textiles can benefit.

“Textile is a sector where margins are very important to become competitive. In the textiles sector, margins of 4 or 5 per cent are important for becoming competitive,” Goyal said on the sidelines of the textiles conclave in Varanasi.

The government is also in the advanced stage of evaluating the 18 PM MITRA proposals. However, the proposals will be finalised after the Parliament session.

PLI 2.0

The textile ministry is likely to finalise the second edition of the production-linked incentive scheme (PLI) for garments, madeups, and home textiles in the beginning of 2023, a senior government official said.

While the first PLI scheme focused on larger companies dealing to produce man made fabrics and technical garments, the new scheme will focus on small businesses. Similarly, the investment threshold is expected to be lower in the new scheme.

In the case of the first PLI scheme, the outlay was Rs 10,683 crore, and the textiles ministry approved as many as 64 applications from various companies and investments worth Rs 1,500 crore have been committed.