Kolkata: After the agriculture debt waiver scheme, the central government is now planning to implement a similar scheme for handloom weavers, Textiles Minister Shankersinh Vaghela said.

The textiles ministry has revised the estimates of the debt-waiver at Rs.20 billion, which was previously estimated at Rs.12 billion.

"We are in the final stages of discussions to execute the scheme," Vaghela said on the occasion of the launch of a textiles expo organised by the National Handloom Development Corp Ltd (NHDC).

The revised estimates have also been approved by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), he said.

The state governments have to be consulted before executing the scheme, as they are required to share 20 percent of the burden, Vaghela added.

In 2006-07, the handloom sector produced 6,536 million square metres of textiles, an increase of 7.01 percent over 2005-06.

In 2007-08, the industry registered a 6.2 percent growth in production at 6,944 million square metres.