The Textile Ministry has made provisions for Rs 1,972 crore towards subsidy amount under the Restructured Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) up to March 31, 2012.

The Union Minister of State for Textiles, Ms Panabaka Lakshmi, said there will be an overall subsidy cap of Rs 1,972 crore, which can be leveraged to make a total investment of Rs 46,900 crore in the different sectors.

While spinning may account for a share of 26 per cent of this investment, weaving, processing and garmenting could have 13 per cent, 21 per cent and eight per cent respectively, she said after inaugurating a road show of TUFS here on Wednesday.

She said under the TUFS, 28,302 applications have been cleared with the project cost of over Rs 2 lakh crore and term loan disbursed to the extent of Rs 75,000 crore.

Andhra Pradesh has been one of the major producers of cotton, with cotton cultivation spread over 17.76 lakh hectares and estimated production being almost 48.37 lakh bales during last year, the Minister said.

However, she pointed out that in respect of processing and garmenting activity, the State lagged behind, underlining the need to step up efforts towards modernisation of weaving, processing and garmenting units in the State.

Out of 40 textile parks cleared under the Scheme for Integrated Textiles Parks (SITP), five parks were earmarked for Andhra Pradesh, with over Rs 88 crore released for developing infrastructure facilities at these parks, Ms Lakshmi said. Two of these parks have already started functioning, while the remaining are in various stages of completion.

Representatives of textile-related industries in the State poured out their woes to the Minister.

Mr S. Nageswara Rao of Kalamkari units' association pointed out that lack of infrastructure and finance were forcing them to supply semi-processed material to Gujarat.

Mr Vinod Kumar of the AP Spinning Mills Association said 16 mills were facing the threat of closure due to banks' refusal to provide enough finance.

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