Coimbatore : The Southern India Mills Association (SIMA), an apex body of spinners, on Tuesday appealed to the new Central Government to resolve Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF) issues to boost job creation and exports.

Resolving issues in the TUF scheme and releasing the pending subsidies to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore on a fast track would help the industry to create jobs for lakhs of people immediately, SIMA chairman P Nataraj said in a statement here.

This would also bring huge investments, thus creating jobs for millions of people and boost exports, he said.

Nataraj also said that special export garment package and enhanced rebate on State and Central taxes and levies benefits would yield the desired results only when the TUF issues were resolved.

The textile industry was the single largest employment provider in the country next only to agriculture providing jobs to over 110 million people, especially the rural women and people below the poverty line.

Realizing the importance of making this sector globally competitive and grabbing the opportunities emerging in the post-WTO era, the NDA Government launched TUFS in 1999 and the same Government extended it up to March 31, 2022, by allocating Rs 17,822 crore.

This budget allocation included Rs 12,671 crore for committed liabilities of Modified Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (M-TUFS), Revised

Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (R-TUFS) and Rs 5151 crore forAmended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (A-TUFS), Nataraj pointed out.

The flagship programme of TUF lattracted over Rs.3.75 lakh crore of investments in the industry during the last two decades and created jobs for over 10 million people, apart from enable the Indian textile industry to become globally competitive and increase itsexports by manifolds, he said.

The scheme was very effective and industry-friendly till 2007 when it was open ended and later many complications were brought in the guidelines which got further complicated at every stage.

This has resulted in a backlog of Rs 9,000 crore of subsidies severely affecting the financial conditions of the new investors and stalled the potential growth, job creation and forex earnings opportunities of the nation, Nataraj said.