India likely to miss achieving the USD 48 billion target for textiles and garment exports for 2016-17, as the government admitted it may be hard to achieve, mainly due fall in demand in major markets such as the US, EU and China.

The Minister in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, elaborating upon measures being taken by the government to attain the textile and garment exports goal said that to promote exports in garments sector, a special package of incentives was announced in June this year which includes relaxation in certain labour laws, income tax concession, 100 percent employer's contribution to EPFO by government, rebate of state levies for exports, etc.

Moreover, the government implements various export promotion schemes to promote exports of all the segments in the sector on a sustained basis, Irani said.

These include, Interest Equalisation Scheme, Merchandise Exports from India Scheme, Market Access Initiative, Market Development Assistance and Duty Drawback.

During 2015-16, the overall exports of textiles and garments from India was USD 40 billion, falling way short of the USD 47.5 billion target.