Bharat Merchant’s Chamber Expresses it’s Post Budget View
by Prashant Kapadia/NHN
Textile is 2nd largest industry after Agriculture, which gives employment to 10% population of India & also it earns big chunk of foreign exchange for the country. This Industry is very closely attached with Agriculture, as cotton produced by them is utilized by Textile as raw material. We had high expectations from this budget for Textile Industry, but were disappointed. In this budget Rs. 7,100 crore is allocated for the industry which was Rs. 6,000 crore last year, is very small compare to the size of the Textile Industry. In current scenario the subsidies under TUFS is not disbursed to the beneficiaries, and we feel the thing will remain the same. Only if government disburses these subsidies regularly, then only the sector will grow. Our suggestion of increasing exemption limit of mediclaim premium for senior citizen has been accepted by the government. We have another suggestion for the benefit of the industry is that Textile Industry should get preferential status, and get loans from banks up to 4% interest. We expect that other suggestions given by us also will be accepted during Budget Discussions, which will give boost to Industry to survive.