SME Times News Bureau | 24 Oct, 2021
Union Minister of Textiles Piyush
Goyal and Minister for State for Textiles Darshana Vikram
Jardosh reviewed the Amended Technology Up-gradation fund Scheme (ATUFS)
with the different Ministries, Departments ,Textiles Industry
Associations and Banks etc at the 5th Inter Ministerial Steering
Committee (IMSC) meeting organized by the Ministry of Textiles.
They
reviewed the Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme to boost the
Indian Textile Industry by enabling ease of doing business, bolstering
exports & fuelling employment. In addition to fixing the timeline
for conduct of IMSC meeting quarterly to facilitate implementation ,
some of significant decisions to resolve pending issues and way forward
include :
- Reduction
of Compliance burden by accepting only single certificate from the
concerned bank instead of multiple documents regarding evidence of
payment for claimed machineries
- Rationalisation of GR related to cases of consortium finance
- Consideration of Standalone embroidery machines wef inception of the ATUFS.
- Facilitating
Industry by providing Condonation of filing for UIDs to 1795 pending
cases besides the cases in which cut off dates falls during 23rd March
2021 and 22 October 2021(COVID Second wave period) with time line of its
submission to Office of Textile Commissioner/iTUFS within 90 days (
i.e., total period for unit & banks ).
- Condonation for
the submission of JIT request to 814 units besides the unit in
which cut off date for submission of JIT request in post COVID-19.
Ministry
of Textiles will simplify the procedure for Joint inspection using a
calibrated approach to linking joint inspect to subsidy support size by
reducing burden on bracket lower than Rs 50 lakh instead of present 100
%.
Secretary
( Textiles) and Textile Commissioner will look into the modalities
for simplification of enlistment of machinery manufacturers and
accessories / spares parts manufacturers.
Speaking
on the occasion, Goyal said that despite the hindrances
during COVID-19 pandemic, Ministry and the office of Textile
Commissioner have put serious efforts in resolving the policy
constraints and settling of the claims.
He mentioned that a special
measure was introduced to ease liquidity flow in the industry by
introducing an option for getting part subsidy released against Bank
Guarantee.
He
noted with satisfaction that out of total settlements under ATUFS since
inception, about 61% of claims have been settled during the peak of
pandemic period i.e., in FY 2020-21.
The Minister also suggested that
Ministry and Textile Commissioner should rework the physical
verification mechanism to automated verifications through Video
Conferencing mode. He said provision for self certification of machinery
by units and random verification by office of Textile Commissioner may
be considered in place of present physical inspection.
Ministry
of Textiles had introduced Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) in
1999 as a credit linked subsidy scheme intended for modernization and
technology up-gradation of the Indian textile industry, promoting ease
of doing business, generating employment and promoting exports. Since
then, the scheme has been implemented in different versions.