The Commerce Ministry has expanded the current incentive schemes for exporters to include more products, greater number of markets and, in some cases, has also increased the incentive amount. The additional items that have been included in the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) are textile items, according to an official release.

The Indian Texpreneurs Federation, a body of spinners in the region, today welcomed the commerce ministry's announcement amending the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS), saying the move would help ease some pressure and boost exports.

The ITF Secretary Prabhu Damodaran said that now all kind of textile fabrics (cotton fabrics, blended fabrics and also Man made fibres based fabrics) will be eligible for two percent MEIS benefit for all category of countries (A B and C).

For the past six months, the country’s exports were under tremendous pressure and showed no signs of revival in the face of continuing slowdown in global demand , the government has announced additional sops for exporters and this move will help ease it.

Exports in April-September 2015-16 fell 17.63 percent to $ 132.93 billion compared to the same period last year. By offering this benefit to all target markets, industry will get full benefit.

Prabhu Damodaran urged the spinning industry to gear up and move the value chain to make more fabrics and garments to capture big market share globally.

The current revision introduces 110 new tariff lines and increases rates or country coverage or both for 2228 existing tariff lines, an official release circulated on Friday said.