Govt sees 67% increase in disbursal through textile fund in 6 years

Eyes disbursal of Rs 30,000 crore under the Amended Technology Funds Scheme

The government is looking to disburse funds to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore to the textile industry under the revised Amended Technology Funds Scheme (A-TUFS) by 2022, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, union minister of textiles, independent charge, has said. This is due to increased interest from the industry and the opportunities that lie ahead, he said on the sidelines of the Make in India event here. 

The amount also marks a 67% increase in disbursals from its original plan, Gangwar added. 

Initially, the government had estimated disbursal of Rs 18,000 crore under the scheme 

The ministry is in the process of finalising guidelines under the A-TUFS, which will be announced by the end of the current month. The textiles ministry has already notified A-TUFS early this year.

Under this new scheme, all new units in the textiles sector would be facilitated with the benefits. Existing units interested in upgrading their technology would also be availed the benefit of this scheme, said Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles.

When the TUFS were introduced in early nineties, the scheme proved very successful in attracting investments. With the immense opportunities lie ahead in the textiles sector, the textiles ministry want to extend TUFS scheme to make textile sector more attractive to make India truly a textile manufacturing hub.

The government wants to bring Indian textiles sector at least at par with this industry in Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Pakistan for larger global market access with low cost of manufacturing.