India’s textile budget expected to gets a modest hike for 2025 fiscal
The Union government plans to increase budget expenditure for the textile ministry by 2.5 per cent for the fiscal year 2025, taking its allocation to Rs 4,500 crore. The proposed budget for upcoming fiscal year will see an increase of Rs 110 crore compared with the current fiscal year’s allocation of Rs 4,389 crore.
While the government aims to position India as a global player in textiles, the marginal uptick in allocation may pose a challenge to the ministry in utilising its budget effectively.
In fiscal year 2021-22, the ministry received a budgetary allocation of Rs 11,059.81 crore, which was further increased by over 10 per cent to Rs 12,382 crore in 2022-23. However, the ministry faced a massive 71 per cent cut in revised budget estimate, plunging the outlay to Rs 3,579 crore in 2022-23. The marginal rise in the budgetary allocation will not impact the progress of the Pradhan Mantri Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) scheme as its outlay of Rs 4,445 crore is sanctioned for five years till 2027, one of the persons cited above said.
The government aims to position itself as a textile sourcing and investment destination through seven PM MITRA parts and plans to seek an investment of Rs 70,000 crore in the next five years. It also plans to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) through the PM MITRA and several other schemes.
The domestic apparel and textile industry contributes approximately 2.3 per cent to India’s gross domestic product, constitutes 13 per cent of its industrial production and plays a pivotal role by contributing 12 per cent to the country’s export revenue. India commands a 4 per cent share in the international trade of textiles and apparel.
To foster private equity investments and boost employment opportunities, the government has strategically introduced several initiatives, including the Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks and the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme.
The ministry has added 43 new partners under the Samarth scheme for capacity building in the textile sector. It has also approved projects for research and development and is spending $7.4 million on it.