Keeping in view the difficulties faced by the garment exporters, the minister informed the members that the government has revised the duty drawback and DEPB rates, which will benefit the textile sector.

In addition, the premium on export credit guarantee have been reduced by 10 per cent of the duty drawback and the rate of interest on pre-shipment and post-shipment credit have been reduced by 2 per cent. The government has also released about Rs600 crore to clear all arrears of terminal excise duties and central sales tax reimbursement, the minister added.

Regarding the modified rehabilitation scheme of the NTC mills, the minister said that a schedule of implementation has been drawn up to modernise its 22 mills at the cost of approximately Rs540 crore. He hoped that 13 NTC mills would be completely modernised by March next year and the remaining by March 2009.

After the modernisation, the NTC is projected to produce 600 lakh kg of yarn and 250 lakh metre of cloth annually with a turnover of more than Rs.931 crore in the year 2009-10.

In addition, BIFR has also approved the modernization of 18 NTC mills through joint ventures. Out of these 18 mills, two mills at Coimbatore are likely to be dropped from the joint venture list due to improved performance and will be modernised by NTC itself.

The minister said that at present NTC is in the process of inviting proposals for joint ventures with private entrepreneurs to modernize and run some of these mills. He further stated that efforts of the government to move NTC towards profitability has started bearing fruit and their dependence on the Government had come down to Rs60 crore from Rs300 crore annually.