Textile ministry seeks bailout package

NEW DELHI: The textile ministry has asked the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the finance ministry to provide a bailout package for the textile industry which has been severely hurt due to the recent global slowdown. The proposed package include providing interest rate subvention to the textile industry so that bank credit is available to the industry at 7% apart from increasing the duty draw-back to 4% and reducing the margin money requirement to 10% from the pres-ent 25%.

"We have recommended a detailed package for the industry. The recommen-dations are in accordance with the industry demand. Now it is up to the PMO to take a final call on this," textile minister Shankarsinh Vaghela told report-ers.

Mr Vaghela also said that the textile sector has witnessed a decline in export in October and there may be a drop in the overall target for financial year 2008-09 also. A senior official in the ministry said that total export may be at the same level as that of last year and there may not be any increase or decrease. Earlier the government had projected a 20% increase in exports over the previ-ous year.