Amended Technology Up-gradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS):
Union Minister of Textiles Piyush Goyal reviewed the Amended Technology Up-gradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS) to boost the Indian textile industry by enabling the ease of doing business, bolstering exports and fuelling employment.
- 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).