Credit availed by textiles and apparels sector drops 20 pc to Rs 1.62 lakh cr as of Dec 2020: Report

This was mainly due to suspension of manufacturing activities in the immediate aftermath of COVID-19 lockdown last year, as per the SIDBI-CRIF joint report. The number of active loans from the sector stood at 4.26 lakh as of December 2020. As per the study, apparels contributed to a majority of exports, followed by home textiles and fabric. Nearly 95 per cent of the overall credit by volume of the sector is concentrated in the micro, small and medium segment of borrowers, it said. 

Geographically, Maharashtra has the largest share of the credit portfolio at 25 per cent of the credit book to the sector. Top 13 regions rich in textiles and apparels manufacturing accounted for 80 per cent of the credit portfolio of the sector as of December 2020. Nearly all states have districts manufacturing textiles and apparels, having several credit active units. Some districts such as Mumbai and Surat have more than Rs 10,000 crore credit portfolios as of December 2020. Sivasubramanian Ramann, chairman and managing director of SIDBI, said India is a world leader in textiles and possesses the entire manufacturing value chain. ''Textiles and apparels industry in India is one of the oldest and largest sectors of the Indian economy and critical to the country's employment story. The sector is the fifth largest in exports, contributing to 12 per cent of the country's export earnings and 2 per cent to GDP,'' he said. The government announced a special economic package in May 2020 under the Atmanirbhar Bharat programme that is set to benefit the large number of small-scale entities, including the weavers and artisans across the country, said Navin Chandani, MD & CEO, CRIF India. Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the main financial institution for the financing, promotion and development of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). CRIF is a fintech player offering services including credit information, business information, analytics, scoring, credit management and decision solutions in India.