The government had initially estimated disbursal of Rs18,000 crore under the Technology Funds Scheme (TUFS) but with the increasing interest from the textile industry and the opportunities that lie ahead government is now looking to disburse textile funds of around Rs 30,000 crore under ATUFS scheme by 2022, said Santosh Kumar Gangwar, union minister of textiles, independent charge on the sidelines of the Make in India event held in Mumbai.

The amount marks a 67% increase in disbursals from its original plan, Gangwar added

The government also wants to bring Indian textiles sector at least at par with this industry in Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Pakistan for larger global market access with low cost of manufacturing.

The ministry is in the process of finalising guidelines under the A-TUFS, which will be announced by the end of the current month. The textiles ministry has already notified A-TUFS early this year.

Under this new scheme, all new units in the textiles sector would be facilitated with the benefits. Existing units interested in upgrading their technology would also be availed the benefit of this scheme, said Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles.

In the early nineties, when the TUFS were introduced the scheme proved very successful in attracting investments. With the immense opportunities lie ahead in the textiles sector, the textiles ministry want to extend TUFS scheme to make textile sector more attractive to make India truly a textile manufacturing hub.