The Hindu Business Line : Ceiling on capital subsidy for powerloom sector hiked

THE Government on Thursday raised the ceiling on capital subsidy for the powerloom sector from Rs 60 lakh to Rs 1 crore under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) and increased the rate of capital investment subsidy availed of by small jute and textiles units from 12 per cent to 15 per cent.

The objective of the scheme was to provide funds for the textiles industry for technological upgradation of the existing units and for the setting up new units with advanced technology, the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, told newspersons after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) here.

The TUF scheme was launched on April 1, 1999, and will be operational till March 31, 2007, with IDBI, IFCI, and SIDBI being the nodal agencies for providing finance.

As on October 31, 2004, a total of 3,599 applications have been received under the TUF scheme with a project cost of Rs 25,115 crore and 3,361 applications with a project cost of Rs 20,367 crore have been sanctioned. By raising the ceiling for loan and rate of subsidy, more powerloom and small-scale units would be able to enjoy the benefits of the TUF scheme.

The CCEA also approved the continuation of the restructured Central sector scheme for co-operative education and training during the Tenth Plan with an outlay of Rs 231 crore. The scheme aims at providing training and education to personnel working in the co-operative sector, Mr Chidambaram said. The CCEA also approved the creation of Rs 200-crore corpus for co-operative training wherein the Government would give Rs 100 crore while the rest of the amount would be raised by the National Co-operative Union of India (NCUI).

The creation of the corpus fund would enable the National Council for Co-operative Training to become self-sustainable to run co-operative training programmes with optimum utilisation of grant and minimal administrative expenditure.

The fund will also enable the council to continue the pension scheme.

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