To discuss the issue of delay and other problems being faced by the industry in availing the Technical Upgradation Funds Scheme (TUFS) a delegation of the hosiery and textile industry, led by Vinod Thapar, Chairman of the Ludhiana Knitwear Club, met Kiran Soni Gupta, Commissioner of Textiles, in Mumbai. Some units of Ludhiana that had applied for subsidy under the scheme within the specified time of one year from the date of sanction. Due to delay at the textile commissioner’s office, these could not be punched into the system for UID creation within the stipulated time period, and hence, were lying pending at the office of the textile commissioner in Amritsar for more than one-and-a-half years. Even Ministry of Textiles had delegated the authority to allow the application of these units on a case-by-case basis.
Some member units had been allotted Unique Identity (UID) numbers, but the verification visit – which is a pre-requisite for disbursement of the subsidy amount – was pending in some cases which are more than nine-month-old. And others that applied for subsidy, were allotted reference numbers in September last year, but are still waiting for UID. Due to these difficulties and delays the industry hasn’t flourished as much as it should have had.
