Kolkata, May 21 (KNN) After the West Bengal Government came up with draft policies for textile and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) ) that set out various incentives to try to spread growth into all corners of the state, leading industry bodies have expressed hope that the policy roadmap would help the industry to grow significantly.
 
"A policy was necessary. It will surely help Bengal's textile sector grow rapidly. The roadmap is also expected to ensure a higher contribution from the state to the country's textile sector in the days ahead," said a media report quoting Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BNCCI) secretary DP Nag.
 
"The sector has a lot of potential in terms of employment generation," Nag added.
 
Welcoming a textile policy for the state, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) said many of the suggestions of the chamber were reflected in the draft policy being issued by the government for comments.
 
"West Bengal has a long history and tradition in textiles, but there was a need for a policy roadmap which will revive, modernise and broad base the state's textile industry and integrate it with the global market," said FICCI senior vice president Sidharth Birla.
 
As other states had come up with very competitive textile policies and attracted significant investments as a result in the last few years, it was important that Bengal also came up with an ambitious policy to attract investments, Birla said on Saturday. 
 
FICCI had submitted detailed policy suggestions to Mamata Banerjee in December 2012 and since then has been consistently working with the state government on the policy.
 
Addressing the media at the state secretariat here on Saturday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the draft textile policy was ready.
 
The state government has uploaded the draft policy on its websites and invited suggestions from various industry bodies as well as the business community.
 
The state government has promised that investors in both the sectors would get an array of benefits starting from capital investment subsidy to stamp duty exemption while buying land, with the introduction of these policies.

They provide for a slew of subsidies, including capital investments subsidies, interest subsidies, power subsidies, as well as tax reimbursements and stamp duty waivers, which are scaled depending on where entrepreneurs set up their businesses.

The state has been divided into four zones, with a sliding scale of incentives for each area. Entrepreneurs will get more benefits if they set up in poorer districts like Purulia and Cooch Behar, than in Kolkata and the surrounding areas.   
 
The textile policy also includes plans for a new research centre, the East India Textiles Research Association, and two new government agencies - the West Bengal State Spinning Mills Federation, and the West Bengal Silk Development Corporation Ltd.
 
The government also plans a mega power-loom park, three hosiery and apparel parks to be set up on a PPP model, and two new textile parks with common effluent treatment plants.
 
The government's draft policy for micro, small and medium enterprises has subsidies similar to those provided for in the textile policy, but at lower rates. It also plans a state expert group to support MSMEs, industrial estates for MSMEs, and a minimum of four MSME clusters in each district.
 
Speaking about the MSME policy, West Bengal CM said, “The state government will give various benefits to both MSME and textiles, which include capital investment subsidy, interest subsidy on term loans, electricity duty waiver, power subsidy, stamp duty and registration fee waiver, entry tax reimbursement for plants and machineries, VAT reimbursement.”
 
“This will be applicable to both textile and MSME,” she said.

The government has also assured additional benefits under standard quality compliance, freight subsidy and handloom, powerloom, hosiery, apparel and garments. (KNN)