Govt increases textiles export target to $43 bn for current fiscal

The government has revised upward the textiles export target to $43 billion for the current fiscal, from $36 billion set earlier. Minister of State for Textiles Panabaaka Lakshmi said that following discussions with textiles export promotion councils against the backdrop of rupee depreciation and after considering strong industry performance, the government has decided to raise the textile exports target to $43 billion for FY14. In the previous fiscal, domestic textile exports stood at $34 billion.

Meanwhile, Indian textile exports' growth remained flat to $7.79 billion in the first quarter  of this fiscal from $7.76 billion in the same period of the 2012-13 mainly due to the weak demand in global markets like the US  and Europe. However, it seems difficult for the government to achieve set exports target on account of prevailing slowdown in major markets include the US and Europe, which represents around 65 percent share in the country's total textiles exports. Exporters are now exploring new markets like Latin America, Africa, Australia, Japan, Israel, South East Asia and Middle East countries to reduce dependence on western markets.

Meanwhile, the government has taken various steps to boost textiles exports including providing three percent interest subvention, incremental export incentive scheme and inclusion of new markets like New Zealand, Latvia for textile exports under the focus market scheme. The government had earlier said that textiles sector is the only sector where we can increase the exports substantially, adding that industry issues will be addressed soon. The government had also expressed need to encourage skill development as adequate skill development will boost the production and turn down the cost of production, leading the textile sector to grow which in turn will help it to compete in the global market.