Textile Min inform 682 mills shut by June, MSMEs fear the number may increase

New Delhi, Aug 11 (KNN) Responding to a question in Lok Sabha, Union Minister for Textiles, Smriti Irani informed that over 682 textile mills closed and shut their operations by June end, though the Minister added that the Ministry is keen in helping the sector revive, the industry comprising mainly of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) feel otherwise.

Talking to KNN, Anand Bhutada of Vitthal Textile Mills and EC Member of Yanthima Bharat Mill Association, said that the situation in the sector is graduating from bad to worse, and the numbers disclosed by the Ministry is an indicative figure of the same.

Anand said that the government on one hand says to be facilitating ease of doing business, but the textile mills are yet to be addressed.

Highlighting the problems of the sector he said that main reason for the poor performance of the sector is the cheap imports from China.

“China provides for a terrific MSME ecosystem, the Chinese procure raw material from India, takes it to their country, make items and then bring back and sell at a cheaper price than the cost of our products which we keep at minimal profits” said Anand.

He added that the competing countries such as China and Pakistan have simpler laws for the business.

Anand informed that recently the government is holding talks to mandate ESI and PF for the labours involved in the sector. Their payment is to be made from the year 2007. The mills that operate at tiny and micro level will have to sell off their units in case the law is implemented.

Commenting upon the new tax, he said that because of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), majority of the units including his in the region of Solapur are already out of business since last month.

“The 5 per cent tax on our industry is highly disruptive, the textile mills that houses over 1 lakh employees in the region is already starting to bear losses, huge unemployment may follow”.

The Textile Minister earlier informed the lower house that over 682 textile mills were closed in the country. Of them, 232 mills were in Tamil Nadu while 85 were in Maharashtra, 60 in Uttar Pradesh and 42 mills in Haryana. (KNN/ DA)