The Union Budget 2025-26, which demonstrates the government’s dedication to bolstering India’s textile and apparel industry, is warmly received by the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI). In comparison to the updated budget for 2024–2025, the budget’s allocation for textiles grew by 57.7% for 2025–2026. The PLI scheme’s higher allocation of Rs 1,148 crore for the current year is mostly to blame.
Chairman CITI, Shri Rakesh Mehra thanked the Government for considering the long pending demand of industry and announcing the Mission for Cotton Productivity which will facilitate significant improvements in productivity and sustainability of cotton farming, and promote extra long staple cotton varieties. “It will not only address the industry’s concern of declining cotton productivity but will also reduce our dependency on imports for specialized varieties of cotton
like ELS” he added.
Additionally, he praised the government’s strategy and stated that the budget is intended to create a technologically advanced, globally competitive textile industry. The sector will grow faster to reach a US$ 350 billion market size by 2030 thanks to a number of other government initiatives, such as the creation of an Export Promotion Mission, the exemption of two more shuttle-less looms from BCD to support the technical textile industry, and the revision of tariff items on knitted fabric categories to boost domestic industry.
“It is heartening to note that the Government has a special focus on MSMEs, which account for more than 45% of our exports. Indian T&A industry also is majorly MSME-driven. The enhanced credit availability with guaranteed cover for MSMEs will definitely boost the confidence of MSMEs, however, the textile industry has been requesting a mix of an upfront capital subsidy and performance-based incentive scheme, especially for the MSME and such a scheme is needed for the targeted growth in this sector” cited Shri Mehra.
It is anticipated that the implementation of a new tax system will raise disposable earnings, which will boost domestic demand for clothing and textiles. Shri Mehra underlined that increased purchasing power will boost demand in a number of textile markets, which will be advantageous to both major and small sector participants.
CITI is nevertheless hopeful that products covered by Quality Control Orders (QCOs) will also be subject to import-related relaxations, especially the prolonged timelines for end-use compliance. For the textile value chain, this will increase operational efficiency and simplify supply networks.
