Business

Powertex Will Help Upgrade Fabric Production In India

The Ministry of Textile's Powertex Scheme is a timely one. The powerloom sector will continue to remain the largest producer of fabric in the country. The organised mill sector, a couple of years ago, had increased its share slightly to 6-7%, but that has again fallen down to less than 4%.

And the powerloom sector is replacing old looms with new rapier shuttleless looms. Indian and foreign weaving machine manufacturers expect investments in the decentralized powerloom sector to increase manifold. India remains an exporter of basic summer apparel, as fabrics for higher value apparel winterwear need to be imported. As we reported earlier, the handloom sector is faring better than ever following the solid government support to handloom weavers.

Thus, a scheme such as Powertex will hopefully help the upgradation of this sector. The Powertex scheme brings together all existing schemes for the sector, while also tailoring them to meet the requirements of practically the industry. The ministry offers subsidies to the tune of Rs 20000-81000 depending on the level of technology upgradation being implemented. The insitu upgradation scheme for plain powerlooms has rightly set an eligibility for powerloom units having minimum eight looms. The group workshed scheme has also been tailored to better suit the requirements of the sector, with subsidies ranging from 40-90% of the unit cost of construction.

Under the yarn bank scheme, the government has announced an interest-free corpus fund of Rs 2 crore per yarn bank to the SPV/consortium, to enable them to purchase yarn at wholesale rates and give the yarn at reasonable price to the small weavers. The SPV/consortium will have to match the government corpus. The government has decided to offer Rs 2 crore to every Common Facility Centre too.

Besides helping the SC, ST communities and women entrepreneurs to set up powerloom units, the government has tried to bring in sustainable development as one of the objectives under the Powertex scheme. Thus units setting up solar energy plants will be offered subsidies ranging from Rs 2.25 - 8.55 lakh. The Powertex scheme includes upgradation of powerloom service centres, skills development for the sector, insurance coverage for powerloom workers, among others. The textiles ministry has also identified the need to create awareness about Powertex scheme among weavers through various events & publicity campaigns. We will follow closely the progress of the scheme & its benefits to the industry.

Components of the Power tex India Scheme

1. In-situ Upgradation of Plain Powerlooms

2. Group Workshed Scheme (GWS)

3. Yarn Bank Scheme

4. Common Facility Centre (CFC)

5. Pradhan Mantri Credit Scheme for Powerloom Weavers

6. Solar Energy Scheme for Powerlooms

7. Facilitation, IT, Awareness, Market Development and Publicity for

Powerloom Schemes

1. Tex Venture Capital Fund

2. Grant-in-Aid and Modernisation and Upgradation of Powerloom Service Centres (PSCs)

Other Schemes

1. Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS)

2. Modified Comprehensive Powerloom Cluster Development Scheme (MCPCDS)

3. Universal Insurance Coverage Scheme

4. Integrated Skill Development Scheme (ISDS)

Insitu Upgradation Scheme for plain powerlooms

Objectives

1. To provide financial assistance to economically weaker low-end powerloom units, for upgrading existing plain looms to semi-automatic/shuttleless looms by way of fixing certain additional attachments/kits.

2. To improve quality and productivity of the fabrics being produced and enable them to face the competition in domestic and international markets.

Eligibility

1. Powerloom units having upto 8 Looms

Attachments On Existing Plain Power Looms

1. Warp Stop Motion

2. Weft Stop Motion

3. Efficient Braking Device

4. Replacement of metallicparts by self-lubricating nylon parts

5. Jacquard / Dobby

6. Anti Crack device

7. Semi-positive let off motion

8. Pirn Winding Machine

9. Rapier kit.

Group Workshed Scheme

1. Group will consist of at least 4 weavers / entrepreneur(s) having separate legal entity.

2. At least 24 nos. of shuttleless looms of width upto 230 cms (or) 16 nos. of shuttleless looms of wider width i.e. 230 cms and above must be installed.

3. Each beneficiary should have at least 4 looms.

4. Only TUFS compatible machineries to be installed.

Maximum Admissible Area

1. Shuttleless Looms: 400 Sq.ft/ Loom

2. Weaving Preparatory: 40% of Loomage area

3. Dormitory: 125 Sq.ft/Person