Piyush Goyal Reviews the Amended Technology Up-gradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS)

· 61% of Claims Settled under ATUFS (Amended Technology Up-gradation fund Scheme) even during the Peak of Pandemic period i.e., in FY 2020-21.

· Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme to Boost the Indian Textile Industry by Enabling Ease of Doing Business, Bolstering Exports & Fuelling Employment.

· 5th Inter Ministerial Steering Committee Meeting of the Ministry of Textiles on ATUFS Takes Place

Union Minister of Textiles, Piyush Goyal and Minister for State for Textiles, Smt. 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 cutoff 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, Piyush 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.

ATUFS Background

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.

The ongoing ATUFS has been approved in 2016 and implemented through web based iTUFS platform. Capital Investment Subsidy is provided to benchmarked machinery installed by the industry after physical verification.

ATUFS was approved for a period from 2015-16 to 2021-22 with an allocation of Rs. 17,822 crore (Rs. 12,671 crore for committed liability of previous versions of TUFS & Rs. 5151 crore for new cases under ATUFS).

The scheme is being administered with a two stage monitoring mechanism by Technical Advisory-cum-Monitoring Committee (TAMC) and Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee (IMSC). ATUFS is implemented through web based platform, iTUFS.

Modifications carried out in scheme guidelines in 2018 and further streamlining of procedures have simplified the process for availing the subsidy under the scheme.

In 2019, IMSC decided to introduce physical verification of machinery and computation of subsidy before releasing committed liability under previous versions of scheme (MTUFS, RTUFS & RRTUFS).