The Southern India Mills’ Association has appealed to the new government at the Centre to resolve the TUF issue, boost job creation and textile exports.
P Nataraj, Chairman, SIMA, has in a communication, reiterated the need for resolving issues in the TUF (Technology Upgradation Fund) Scheme by fast-tracking the release of the pending TUF subsidy of ₹9,000 crore.
Resolving the TUFS issues would help bring huge investments, create jobs and boost exports as well.
“Special export garment package and enhanced RoSTCL benefits would yield the desired results only when the TUFS issues are resolved,” the SIMA Chairman said
The TUF, a flagship programme of the Textiles ministry, has attracted over ₹3.75-lakh crore investment over the past two decades, created jobs for over 10 million people apart from enabling the textile industry become globally competitive and increase its exports manifold.
The scheme was effective and industry-friendly till 2007 when the Scheme was open ended, but as many complications cropped up, ₹9,000-crore in TUF subsidies piled up, and started to severely impact new investors in textiles.
This stalled the growth potential, forex earning opportunities besides affected job creation on account of new investment.
In its bid at making the sector globally competitive, the NDA government, which launched the TUF scheme in 1999, later extended the scheme up to March 2022 by allocating ₹17,822 crore.
This budget allocation included ₹12,671 crore for committed liabilities of Modified Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (M-TUFS), Revised Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (R-TUFS) and ₹5,151 crore for Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (A-TUFS), the SIMA chief said.