Hyderabad: The Telangana government has allocated a budget of Rs1,200 crore to the textile sector for 2017-18, of which Rs373 crore is for handlooms and Rs827 crore for powerlooms and their modernization and other schemes, said state information technology and industries minister K. T. Rama Rao on Monday.

Rao, who released the Department of Industries and Commerce’s 2016-17 annual report on Monday, said that Telangana generated Rs73,000 crore in investments and created 2.56 lakh jobs in the process, after the state government started the Telangana State Industrial Project Approval and Self-Certification System (TS-IPASS) post the programme’s launch in 2015.

According to its website, the TS-IPASS is a system in which an industrial application has to be cleared within 1 to 30 days depending on the complexity of the approval.

The department’s annual report showed that Telangana managed to achieve a 10.1% year-on-year of growth in gross state domestic product (GSDP), compared to the national average of 7.1% in 2016-17. “The state’s economy in the national gross domestic product (GDP) has increased seven basis points (from 4.21% to 4.28%) in 2016-17 against 2015-16," Rao stated.

The industries minister also said that thanks to TS-IPASS, Telangana was ranked first in the ease of doing business (EODB) reforms for 2015-16 (conducted by the World Bank).

He announced that a handful of industrial parks are set to be established in Telangana. Among them are the Kakatiya Integrated Mega Textiles park, Sircilla Apparel park, four mega food parks at Nizamabad, Gadwal, Khammam and Sangareddy.

Another aspect of the industries sector in Telangana that Rao highlighted was that the mineral department had generated a revenue of Rs3,169 crore, which was 103% of the required target and had attained a growth rate of 34%, which was highest among all states.

“The revenue from sand (mining) revenue was about Rs400 crore in the same period. It was just Rs10 crore (per year) before the state’s bifurcation," Rao added.

Genome Valley, the cluster which is home to over 200 companies, is being expanded with more than 2 million sq.ft of laboratory/incubation space in partnership with IKP Knowledge Park and MN Science and Technology Park, Rao said, adding that a dry port will also be set up at Nalgonda district in the coming days.

On implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) from July, Rao said the Centre should take the advice and suggestions of all states.

“We are still talking to the Centre. It is a learning process and we will have to work with the Central government to make sure that the industries do not suffer," he said, pointing out that Telangana was one of the first states to ratify the GST Act.

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