Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) will be cleared by the Union Cabinet by the year-end and cotton prices will stabilise by December 15, said Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran here on Saturday.
Participating in the first road show to announce the extension of the Scheme for Integrated Textile Park (SITP), he said that TUFS was a successful scheme and it brought so much investment into the country. It was suspended as it overran the plan allocation of Rs.8,000 crore in the first three years of the 11{+t}{+h} Plan period.
“The Cabinet will clear it by the year-end. It will stay and provide necessary assistance to the textile industry. By the time, we finish the SITP road shows in different parts of the country, TUFS will be available for you,” he said.
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Mentioning that the cotton scenario in the country was bad owing to rising prices, he said that the cotton prices would stabilise by December 15 due to fresh arrivals.
The Southern India Mills Association members should not take undue advantage of the current situation.
The Centre and State governments were concerned about the plight of the weavers and they would play a constructive role to bring down the prices.
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Under the SITP, the Centre has kept aside another Rs.500 crore for setting up of new parks. The amount would be sanctioned to about 20 to 25 SITPs on first-come first-serve basis by March 2011.
“We have received several applications from North India and very few applications from Tamil Nadu. That's why we are holding road shows in Chennai and Coimbatore to encourage textile units to make good use of the opportunity. However, the minimum size of SITP should be 100 acres,” he said.
40 parks sanctioned
As part of the road show, Mr. Maran inaugurated online registration of cotton yarn exports and said it would immensely help the textile industry in getting registration of its cotton yarn exports in a quick, transparent and efficient manner.
Union Minister of State for Textiles, Panabaka Lakshmi said that under the SITP, 40 parks were sanctioned in the country, of which 25 were functioning and the rest would start functioning next year.
On completion, these parks would have a investment of Rs.20,000 crore, generate employment for five lakh people and revenue of Rs.30,000 crore.
V. Srinivas, Joint Secretary, Textiles, said that out of the 40 parks, eight were in Tamil Nadu. The time for implementation of the project was 36 months and the Centre had approved eight professional institutions to act as Project Management Consultants for the timely implementation of SITP.
The road shows will be held in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Coimbatore, the last one, on December 9.