Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani said that a conference on GST will be held soon to decide the rate, hinting that the textile industry is expected to have uniform GST rate, responding to pleas at a meeting of textile industries associations and stakeholders in Coimbatore, for fixing five per cent GST rate, the lowest slab for the industry.

The Minister urged the industry associations to give suggestions and views during meetings that will be held in different cities shortly. She also indicated that there might be a uniform rate across the value chain.

The minister took part in a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on development and modernisation of power loom sector and another one with the industry associations. The Centre has allocated ₹52 crore for the powerloom sector in 2014-2015, ₹110 crore in 2016-2017, she said.

It had introduced the PowerTex India scheme, which included subsidy for weaving units that want to go in for solar energy, construction of dormitory for workers. She urged the powerloom weavers to use the helpline to get guidance on schemes and subsidies for the sector.

Textile Commissioner Kavita Gupta said that the outlay for the powerloom sector this financial year was ₹166 crore and also added that the textile policy is likely to be finalised shortly.

During the meeting with the industry, on the demand for removal of anti-dumping duty on imports of man made fibre, the Minister asked the industry to collect concrete data to support their plea.

Regarding fluctuating yarn prices, the Minister urged the powerloom sector to go in for the yarn bank scheme project under the PowerTex India scheme.