Nearly 40 per cent of the total amount of Rs 3,863.16 crore sanctioned under the scheme during its 19-month-operation till October 31, went towards composite upgradation. This comprises a whopping Rs 1,528.82 crore. Out of the total 80 applications made by units under this category, 64 have been sanctioned. However, the amount disbursed towards this segment till the date under review is only Rs 572.19 crore.

The spinning industry, from which the offtake was brisk in the beginning, stands next in availing funds under the scheme. A total of Rs 983.87 crore was sanctioned for 138 applications and Rs 504.89 crore were disbursed. The TUFS, it may be noted, was launched in April 99 with a 5 per cent interest subsidy to effectively improve the Indian textile industry's competitive edge once the free trade regime sets in. The main objective was to upgrade powerlooms and the processing segments in particular.

According to the data available, the offtake from the weaving segment remained low with only Rs 244.48 crore being sanctioned for 59 applications and a meagre Rs 102.24 crore being disbursed. A total of 77 applications were made, out of which only 37 were made to Small Industrial Development Bank of India (Sidbi) and the lending institutions co-opted by it. This is despite the need to upgrade the powerloom units in the country on a war footing.

The scheme had undergone dilutions, both on the technology front and on the financial norms front, several times after its launch upon the request from the industry. Around 100 applications from the processing segment have been sanctioned Rs 611.26 crore. The amount disbursed stood at Rs 305.59 crore.

Around Rs 124 crore was sanctioned for 105 applications made under the `knitting' category and Rs 48.29 crore towards the made-up manufacturing. Two applications were sanctioned Rs 2.82 crore by Sidbi under the technical textiles category.

A look at the performance of the nodal agencies, the banks and other lending institutions co-opted by them, points to a surprising feature in the rate of application rejection. The nodal agencies, IDBI and Sidbi, have the highest rejection rate. While IDBI rejected 43 applications out of 174 made to it, Sidbi rejected 11 applications out of 109. The lending institutions co-opted by the former rejected only one application out of the 125 it received and the PLIs co-opted by the latter accepted all the 384 applications received.