Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Textiles

26-November-2012 14:45 IST

Textile Industry suffered a downturn in 2011-12, due mainly to the global economic slowdown and partially the high price volatility in the international and domestic cotton market. To ease the resultant financial distress, recognizing the Handloom sector as the most vulnerable segment of the Textile industry, Government announced a Handloom Revival, Reform & Restructuring Package under which Rs.3884 crore was allocated for waiver of loans of handloom cooperatives, individual weavers, etc. and for interest subsidy, margin money and credit guarantee for fresh loans. Government also approved a debt restructuring package to help loss making textile mills, to be administered on a case by case basis by the banks within the prudential norms of the Reserve Bank of India. Following the debt restructuring of the mills, there are no losses reported by the industry. Meantime, production indicators have also turned positive for yarn and fabric, showing a 7.9% growth in total spun yarn and a 4.7% growth in total fabric production in April-September 2012 in comparison with the same period in the previous year.

This information was given by the Minister of Textiles, Shri Anand Sharma in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

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Handloom revival package provides loan relief and credit support; mills restructured under prudential banking norms. The Government implemented a Handloom Revival, Reform & Restructuring Package providing loan waivers for cooperatives and individual weavers and measures for interest subsidy, margin money and credit guarantee to support fresh lending. In parallel, a debt restructuring framework for loss making textile mills was approved for bank administration on a case by case basis within Reserve Bank prudential norms, after which the industry reported no losses and production indicators improved.