Sustainable and Accelerated Adoption of efficient Textile technologies to Help small Industries (SAATHI), a new initiative by the ministries of textiles and power is welcomed by The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil). The initiative is taken to benefit 25 lakh powerloom units that produce 57 per cent of the total cloth in India.
Government has implemented the initiative in association with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a public sector entity under the power ministry, who will procure energy-efficient powerlooms, motors and Rapier kits in bulk and provide them to small and medium powerloom units at no upfront cost.
The use of resourceful equipment would result in energy savings and cost savings to the unit owner who in return would repay in instalments to EESL over a four- five-year period. There are 24.86 lakh powerloom units in India most of them using obsolete technology.
“The provision to repay in instalments is a novel idea as it will not burden the small powerloom owners,” Texprocil chairman Ujwal Lahoti said. The fabrics export can be increased substantially if they are treated at par with garments and made-ups in terms of incentives, he added.
He request the government to explore extending the refund of state levies (ROSL) benefit of above five per cent to the fabric sector.
– Apparel and Textile News, Apparel Talk, Indian Apparel
