The proposed draft policy is being studied by the experts and will be put up before the cabinet and then in the coming session of the legislature, said Minister of Textiles Chandrakant Dada Patil.
The state government is set to accept some of the major recommendations proposed by the Suresh Halwankar committee in its report on the new textile policy of Maharashtra.
The proposed draft policy is being studied by the experts and will be put up before the cabinet and then in the coming session of the legislature, said Minister of Textiles Chandrakant Dada Patil.
He said that some of the committee's recommendations are "very good" and would be accommodated in the existing policy, which was put in place by the previous Congress-NCP government in 2012.
Patil, however, didn't elaborate on the recommendations being positively considered.
The textile sector is the second-largest employer, after agriculture, in Maharashtra. At present, over 30 lakh people are directly employed and 2 crore are indirectly employed in the industry.
The committee was constituted in November, soon after the government took oath, with an objective to review the existing textile policy.
It recommended disinvestment of sick cooperative mills and suggested that permanently sick cooperative cotton mills be handed over to the private sector, which has created a lot of controversy in the cooperative sector.
It also talks about development of five mega-textile hubs and attracting foreign direct investment in the textile industry.
"Amravati must be developed as spinning, Nagpur as knitting, Solapur teri-towel and Ichalkaranji as suiting-shirting-denim mega composite textile hubs with complete facilities, along with common effluent treatment plant and water recycling plants in the vicinity, thus cutting down on cost and time of making garment from cotton drastically," states the report.
The committee has hailed China's textile policy and suggested "Fibre to Fashion" approach to turn around the sector, which was once blooming in the state.
It also seeks to reduce the power tariff for the sector, while encouraging setting up of more spinning and processing plants in the state. The draft policy will now go for cabinet approval.
Maharashtra is India's second-largest cotton producer. Over 38.7 hectares gives over 81 lakh bales. Of this, only 25 lakh bales are consumed by the spinning mills in state. The report says, "To utilise all cotton grown in state, over 50 lakh spindles are needed and investment of Rs50,000 crore. As the state earns over Rs1,000 crore revenue from selling yarn worth Rs40,000 crore, increasing spinning capacity will help generating more revenue."
Main recommendations
Reduced power tariff for textile industry, like in other states
Scrapping of MPCB nod for spinning, weaving or knitting mills
0.5% cess on purchase of cotton for insurance of workers
Allowing women to work in night shifts to improve production
75% subsidy for "design-cum-sampling centres"
25% subsidy for setting up skill development centre affiliated to all big industries for offering relevant programmes with the help of IITs
25% subsidy on conversion of shuttle loom to semi-automatic looms
10% subsidy instead of 5% for technical textiles with a cap of Rs50 lakh
30% subsidy for upgrade in B and C zone of the state, 40% in D zone
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