More than 100 cotton/man-made fibre textile mills have closed since 2009-10 in India, as per the data available with Textiles Commissioner. This was stated by Minister of Textiles, Mr. Anand Sharma, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian Parliament.
As per the data, the number of non-SSI (small scale industries) textile mills that shut down during 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 were 12, 44 and 35, respectively.
From April to December 2012, 13 textile mills have shutdown, 11 of which were owned by private entrepreneurs. While seven of the textile mills closed since 2009-10 were owned by National Textile Corporation (NTC), five were under the state trading corporations, while the remaining were private mills.
The statement attributed financial problem as the main reason for closure of 104 textile mills during the period under discussion. However, some mills were also closed on account of labour problems and lock outs.
The Government of India has setup Board for Industrial & Financial reconstruction (BIFR) under Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act with a view to arranging the timely detection of sick and potentially sick companies and for the speedy determination of preventive, ameliorative and remedial measures which need to be taken in respect of such units.
BIFR has decided on reliefs/concessions etc. to be given to units/companies on the revival packages.
Out of 104 mills closed during 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 (April-December), 34 textile cases were registered with BIFR as on December 31, 2012. BIFR has declared one case as no longer sick and 11 cases were declared as sick.
The Government has also approved a debt restructuring package to help loss making textile mills in the year 2012, to be administered on case by case basis by the banks within the prudential norms of the Reserve Bank of India, the Minister said.
