Textile-Apparel exports totalled $18.24bn in April-Sept 2025
India has signed 15 Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and formulated a comprehensive 40-country market diversification strategy, identifying high-potential global destinations for Indian textile exports, this update was given by Minister of State for Textile Pabitra Margherita in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on 2 Dec http://ministryoftextiles.gov.in.
India’s exports of Textiles & Apparel, including handicrafts, stood at US$18,235.44 million during April–September 2025, registering a marginal but positive growth of 0.1% over the corresponding period of the previous year (US$18,220.54 million).
The FTAs, including the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) which was signed on 24 July 2025, aim to reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers, simplify procedures, and address structural issues to make Indian Exporters more competitive in partner markets.
Further, a structured and targeted outreach in export markets—supported by coordinated efforts of Export Promotion Councils (EPCs), industry delegations, and Indian Missions abroad—aims to reduce market concentration risks, enhance India’s export share, and establish a more resilient and sustainable global footprint for the Indian textile industry, said the Minister https://www.nseindia.com/.
The Government has approved Credit Guarantee Scheme for Exporters (CGSE) for providing 100% credit guarantee coverage by National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Limited (NCGTC) to Member Lending Institutions (MLIs) for extending additional credit facilities up to Rs.20,000 crore to eligible exporters, including MSMEs. The Scheme aims to enhance the global competitiveness of Indian exporters and support diversification into new and emerging markets.
The Government has also approved the Export Promotion Mission (EPM) which is anchored in a collaborative framework involving the Department of Commerce, Ministry of MSME, Ministry of Finance, and other key stakeholders including Financial Institutions, Export Promotion Councils, Commodity Boards, industry associations, and state governments https://www.bseindia.com/.
He elaborated, the NIRYAT PROTSAHAN component of the scheme focuses on improving access to affordable trade finance for MSMEs through a range of instruments such as interest subvention, export factoring, collateral guarantees, credit cards for e-commerce exporters, and credit enhancement support for diversification into new markets.
The NIRYAT DISHA component focuses on non-financial enablers that enhance market readiness and competitiveness, including export quality and compliance support, assistance for international branding, packaging, and participation in trade fairs, export warehousing and logistics, inland transport reimbursements, and trade intelligence and capacity-building initiatives. EPM consolidates key export support schemes such as the Interest Equalisation Scheme (IES) and Market Access Initiative (MAI), aligning them with contemporary trade needs https://sbi.com.in/.
The Ministry is in regular consultation with exporters including MSMEs to assess the impact of US tariff on India’s textiles & apparel export and other challenges. The Ministry has convened two wide-ranging consultative meetings with large as well as Micro, Small and Medium (MSME) textile exporters from across the textile and apparel value chain at various levels.
The Government is implementing various schemes/initiatives to boost the Indian textile and apparel sector and enhance its competitiveness for boosting export, said the Minister https://www.commerce.gov.in/.
The major schemes/initiatives include PM Mega Integrated Textile Regions and Apparel (PM MITRA) Parks Scheme to create a modern, integrated, world class textile infrastructure; Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme focusing on MMF Fabric, MMF Apparel and Technical Textiles to boost large scale manufacturing and enhancing competitiveness; National Technical Textiles Mission focusing on Research Innovation & Development, Promotion and Market Development; SAMARTH – Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector with the objective providing demand driven, placement oriented, skilling program; Silk Samagra-2 for comprehensive development of sericulture value chain; National Handloom Development Program for end to end support for handloom sector. Ministry of Textiles is also implementing National Handicrafts Development Programme and Comprehensive Handicrafts Cluster Development Scheme for promotion of handicrafts
Export Obligation (EO) period under the Advance Authorisation Scheme for inputs falling under mandatory Quality Control Order (QCO) in the textile sector has been extended from six months to 18 months.
The Government has brought key revisions to the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for MMF Apparel, MMF Fabrics, and products of Technical Textiles to address industry challenges, enhance ease of doing business, encourage fresh investments in the sector etc. The Revisions include Expansion of Eligible Products, relaxation from setting up new companies, reduction in minimum threshold of investment and incremental turnover Criteria. The revision aims to reduce entry barriers and financial thresholds, enabling faster execution https://fieo.org/.
The Government has exempted import duty on cotton under HS 5201 up to 31 Dec 2025 for reducing the input material costs for the textile industry, ensuring adequate supply and improving export competitiveness and enhancing overall industry efficiency. This step is expected to very useful for the cotton-based textile exporting Industry of Tamil Nadu particularly from Tiruppur.
The Government has rationalized the GST rate across the textile value chain to remove structural anomalies, reduce costs, boost demand, support exports and sustain jobs.
The Government is also implementing Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL) scheme for Apparel/Garments and Made-ups to enhance competitiveness by adopting principle of zero-rated exports. Further, textiles products not covered under the RoSCTL scheme are covered under Remissions of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) along with other products. Under RoSCTL, more than 15,000 exporters have benefitted from rebates on embedded taxes during FY 2024-25.
The RoDTEP Scheme has also been extended till 31 Mar 2026 to provide extended support to the large as well as small scale exporters. Fiinews.com
