THE textile industry has welcomed the decision to continue with the Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (SITP) and the Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF). A few months back there was a talk of scrapping these two schemes. But, under pressure from the textile industry and the continuous strenthening of rupee, the Budget has increased the amount under TUFS to Rs 1,090 crore. Vijay Ghai, director, Preknit, says. “We had expected some major support, especially in terms of technology up gradation and uplift of physical infrastructure etc, unfortunately nothing appropriate was announced on these fronts. Continuation of TUF would really help the industry.” So far, 30 integrated textile parks have been approved and 20 units in four parks have commenced production. The Budget proposes to scale up both infrastructure and production and has proposed to take up six centres for development as mega-clusters. Varanasi and Sibsagar will be taken up for handlooms, Bhiwandi and Erode for powerlooms, and Narsapur and Moradabad for handicraft. Each mega cluster will require about Rs.70 crore. In the past few months production capacity graph from the textile sector has been going down. In July 2007-08, cotton textiles grew only 5.1% as compared to 14.3% in July 2006-07. And textile products witnessed a growth rate of meagre 3.6% in July ‘07-08 against 28% in ‘06-07. Average growth rate of cotton textiles for the first 4 months (April-July) of 2007-08 was 6.9% against 12% in 2006-07. TUFS has been the major booster for the expansions and acquisition by the textile companies in the year 2007. To substantiate this, companies in the region like Nahar group, SEL Manufacturing Co. Ltd, MADAME, Priknit Apparels and Malwa Industries Limited, have made significant expansions in the last one year.