Home to 4 % of cotton grown in the country , Madhya Pradesh is also the production centre for many big textile mills , including Vardhman , Trident , Raymond , Century Textiles , Grasim , SRF , SEL , Maral Overseas , to name a few . Underlining the main factors why MP was the choice for expansion many years ago , Harish Chatterjee , Vice President – Manufacturing , Raymond explaines , “ We started the plant in the year 1990 and at that time the capacity was around 7.50 million metres per annum . This particular location was selected on the basis of cheaper land , labour and textile policy giving other benefits like TUF . We also got exemption in payment of Commercial Tax ( Entry Tax , VAT & Sales Tax ) and other taxes for a period of five years . This area had clusters of handloom weavers and hence majority of local workers were familiar with textile , particularly weaving . Also , the location is in mid of the Chhindwara and Nagpur state highway , with Nagpur only 55 km . away from our site so road transport , air services , trains are convenient for our employees .” Many years onwards , the state has lost its sheen , and though the companies working in the state are doing well , the opportunities for future growth are a question mark . Taking cognisance of the same , the State Government has recently announced plans to upgrade the existing apparel clusters at Indore and Jabalpur , as also a textile park in Chhindwara . Among the big projects coming up , Trident Group has announced its plan to set up a mega industrial textile hub at Budhni , where Vardhman is already having a textile unit . Setting up of the textile hub will entail an investment of Rs . 6,250 crore ( US $ 965.4 million ) and will generate
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employment for 16,500 persons .
Companies that have a presence in the state are satisfied with the administrative support they are getting from the Government . “ It is easy to approach the highest level of all authorities , including the Chief Minister in MP and all the required help and guidance is given by the industrial department for setting up a new plant ,” shares Harish , though he quickly adds that the state has lost focus on the textile industry , which could be a disadvantage as many new states are now raising the bar on benefits .
In the meanwhile , to attract investment into the textile sector , the Government has provided an interest subsidy for five years at the rate of 5 % for textile projects and 7 % for composite textile projects . Furthermore , the Government has committed to provide100 % assistance in plant and machinery for eight years under Industrial Investment Promotion Assistance Scheme . “ We feel that there is a scope for more textile industries to establish base in MP , so that the benefit of available resources is availed and also contributes to the development of the state . But still we feel that the state can do more in the area of establishment of technical institutions , like ITI and Polytechnic so that sufficient manpower can be trained and employment can be generated ,” avers Neeraj Jain , Joint Managing Director , Vardhman .
Garment production , the fresh focus …
Indore , the cluster of the readymade garments industry with over 1,260 garment units , has been identified for infrastructure development under
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Cost in MP ( in US $)
With labour costs of US $ 3.7 per day , the state has a significant cost advantage over metros
Cost of Power ( per kWh ) industrial : US cents 8-12.4
Cost of industrial land ( per sq . ft .): US $ 4.8-28.7
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the Textiles Centre Infrastructure Development Scheme ( TCIDS ). Pratibha Syntex , the biggest garment exporter in the state , is based out of Indore and has been in dialogue with the State Government on the important elements that should be included in the final garment policy , the two important aspects being – reimbursement of high manpower cost , and secondly refund of capital investment in the form of capital subsidy .
With labour wages increasing substantially , contract manufacturing has gained a momentum . “ There are too many-unskilled workers in the market and women prefer to do job-work from home , so they don ’ t need to pay commercial taxes , whereas we have to pay such commercial taxes . So , what we do now is we get the cutting done at our end and give these pieces to the workers for sewing . It ’ s always a headache to get everything done at our end , so we just give it out on contract work ,” reasons Amit Goyal , Owner , Shubhda Textile , Indore who is struggling to keep his factory running .
Encouragingly the Government has kept ground realities in focus which became evident when the Garment Policy of the Government of Madhya Pradesh was announced on 9th April 2018 . M . C . Rawat , Secretary , MPTMA feels that the new policy is very industry-friendly and will certainly attract apparel manufacturers to setup their units in the state . “ The Apparel and Made-ups policy announced by the Government of MP is both investmentfriendly and an attractive one . In view of fiscal benefits given , it becomes an add-on advantage of MP ; this should be considered by entrepreneurs planning
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