Under the influence of global economic imbalances, the Indian textile industry, which is troubled internally and externally, has gained a breather because the Indian Ministry of Finance agreed to defer loan payments for the textile industry for one year under the Technical Improvement Fund Plan, a senior Indian government official said. The Indian Textile Secretary said at a meeting of the North India Textile Factories Association: “The Fiscal Service and Secretariat have agreed to defer loan payments for the textile industry for one year. This is good news. The textile industry hopes to defer loan payments for two years.” However, another 1 A senior Indian textile ministry official said payment deferrals would be implemented on a case-by-case basis. Under the Technological Improvement Fund Scheme, assistance will be provided to different sectors of the textile industry to overcome technological deficiencies.
The Indian industry has requested that the interest rate on raw cotton loans be reduced from the current 25% to 10% and the loan period be increased to 180 days. This proposal is under consideration. The financial secretary directed that industry may get lower interest rates, which will be in line with RBI and commercial bank rates.
