The government aims to achieve $100 billion worth of textiles and garment exports over the next five years. It has urged the industry to take advantage of a global market shift where China is pruning its market share in the labor-intensive segment.
In FY21, India’s textiles and allied product exports declined by 10 per cent to $30.4 billion due to the Covid crisis. In the first five months of this fiscal, exports jumped by 87 per cent on year to $16.6 billion, aided by strong economic recovery in key markets such as the US and the EU. Still, the target remains much too ambitious.
Earlier this month, the Cabinet approved a scheme to incentivize investments in setting up mega textile parks to build scale in the fragmented sector. It followed a Rs 10,683-crore production-linked incentive scheme for man-made fiber products and technical textiles. Export tax refund schemes like the RoDTEP and RoSCTL have also been launched in recent years to improve the country’s export competitiveness.