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Government sets up 6 panels to monitor performance of textiles sector news     

The government has constituted six high-level inter-ministerial committees to review and evaluate the performance of the textiles industry, including exports. The committees consist of representatives from the various ministries and departments, including the Planning Commission, textile minister Anand Sharma told the Lok Sabha today.
He said despite the global economic downturn the government has set an export target of $33 billion for the textiles sector next year. The current year's target is $28 billion.
Sharma said the slowdown in the textiles sector has been due to various factors, including the poor global economic situation.
He, however, said the government has been taking steps to meet the problem faced by the global economic downturn, which is a ''serious concern.''
Sharma said there has so far been no complaint of Chinese raw silk being dumped in the country. Chinese silk production has also been lower due to natural calamities there, he added.
He said mechanisms like safeguard duty help the government to check dumping of commodities in Indian markets. However, he said, Chinese silk was helping weavers in India as the production of raw silk has come down in the country.
The government, meanwhile, is setting up 21 new textile parks across the country with investments of around Rs2,100 crore, he said.
The minister said the powerlooms have been facing competition from the mechanised sector and also from cheap imported fabrics.
Handloom sector is also suffering due to lack of better credit facilities and high input costs, the minister said. Low loan disbursement levels have, in fact, been due to a ''debt overhang'', he said.
He said the flow of credit to the handloom sector has been characterised by high costs, low disbursement levels and choking of credit lines due to a ''debt over-hang.''
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) recently approved a Rs3,884-crore loan waiver package for the handloom sector, which will benefit three lakh handloom weavers, he noted.
The package, he said, will reopen choked credit lines for handloom weavers and their societies.
The government, meanwhile, has allowed duty-free import of textile items from the least developed member countries (LDCs) of South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Afghanistan.
''It is too early to assess the volume of clothes imported from Bangladesh and other countries following the duty free import of textile items,'' minister of state for textiles Panabakka Lakshmi informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
There would be a positive impact of free trade with various countries on domestic garment / fabric manufacture as assessed at the time of signing of various free trade agreements, she said.
The agreements also provide for bilateral safeguard mechanisms to address sudden surge in imports to protect the interest of domestic textile industry like concept of negative list, imposition of safeguard duties and rules of origin, she added.