The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme worth Rs 10,683 crore for textile sector with an aim to boost domestic manufacturing and exports, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said on Wednesday.

The decision was taken in a meeting which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. The scheme includes units producing man-made fibre (MMF), apparel, MMF fabrics and ten segments or products of technical textiles.

The PLI scheme for textile is a part of the overall announcement of the scheme for 13 sectors made earlier during the Union Budget 2021-22 with an outlay of Rs 1.97 lakh crore. 

The incentives would be provided over five years, and the government expected investments of more than Rs 19,000 crore into the sector during the five-year period, added Mr Thakur. 

The scheme is also expected to bring about additional production turnover of over Rs 3 lakh crore during the period and create employment opportunities of over 7,50,000 people directly and several lakhs more for supporting activities, according to the government. The government will give higher priority for investment in aspirational districts and tier-III cities. 

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that fabric and garments made from these fibres would be a focus of the scheme so that world-class facilities are built in the country. 

He also said that the government was working on free trade agreements (FTAs) with advanced economies, such as the UK, the US and the EU, that would help the country in both ways to get requisition imports as well boost exports. FTA would also help the textile sector, the minister added, in getting a level playing field that faced unequal taxes in some of these markets.

“So far, we have primarily focused on cotton textile. But two-thirds of the share of the international textile market is of man-made and technical textile. This PLI scheme has been approved so that India can also contribute to the production of man-made fibers,” Mr Goyal said.