COIMBATORE: The textile industry in the region on Thursday hailed the budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Tirupur Exporters Association president Raja M. Shanmugham welcomed the announcement of allocation of Rs.7,148 crore for textile sector of which Rs.2,300 crore has been allotted to Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS) and Rs.2,164 crore for remission of state levies.

In a statement, he also welcomed the extension of corporate tax at 25 per cent to the companies turnover up to Rs. 250 crore in the financial year 2016-17 which is beneficial particularly to the medium enterprises.

He lauded the announcement on launching of flagship National Health Protection Scheme to cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) providing coverage up to 5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation and added this will be beneficial to the employees in Tirupur cluster also.

The increased allocation for infrastructure will overall benefit for the growth of industry and ease of doing business, he said adding that Tirupur, knitwear hub of India, happening city, should be given importance in improvement of infrastructure facilities and pointed out that due to lack of a connecting body with policy makers, which has been requested a quite some time and this time also no mention about it in the Budget.

In a separate statement, Southern India ills’ Association Chairman P. Nataraj, also welcomed the increased allocation of Rs.7,148 crores.

Extending 12 per cent EPF employer’s contribution for the first three years of employment and also the fixed term employment for all the sectors of the industry would encourage job creation in the textile industry, he pointed out.

He has pointed out that timely disbursement of government dues is very much essential to ensure adequacy in working capital and achieve a sustained growth rate in exports and job creations.

“The Budget announced today had some excellent measures to ease the lives of the common people with emphasis on the farm sector, education, health care and social protection,” President of Local Chapter of CII Narayanan said

“Small and medium enterprises received a boost through tax measures as well as access to credit,”. he said.