Technology Upgradation Fund Schemes claims worth Rs 30,00 crores were pending for more than three years against investments made during the so-called blackout period, June 20, 2010 to April 27, 2011. Such subsidy claims are to the tune of Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,200 crores. Now, some of the claims have been cleared.

The blackout period refers to the time when the government had stopped fresh sanctions of projects under the TUFS, seeking to change the contours of the scheme from an open-ended scheme to a closed-ended one, and launched the revised scheme only from April 2011.

In Budget for 2016-17, the Textiles Ministry was allocated Rs 4,595 crores, up from the revised estimate of Rs 4,326 crores in the previous fiscal. The annual rise in budgetary allocation for the textile ministry has been marginal in recent years. In 2013-14, the ministry, in fact, witnessed a cut in allocation from a year before.

Last year the Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS) was introduced. An amount of Rs 12,671 crores had been approved for committed liabilities under the old scheme. Another Rs 5,151 crores has been approved for subsidy payment under the new scheme over a period of seven years, much less than the allocation seen in recent years.