Bangalore: Bowing to demands from the textile industry, the Union Finance Ministry is understood to have agreed to provide an additional Rs. 1,000 crore for the textile sector under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) during the current financial year.

The domestic textile industry had urged the Union Government to extend the scheme up to March 31, 2010 to help meet international competition in the post-quota regime.

The Finance Ministry, through a circular issued on July 7 to banks, scrapped TUFS, which provided funds at subsidised interest rates to the textile and apparel sectors.

The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) had termed the decision a "retrograde step" and said it would harm the sector considerably.

"The apparel industry needs Rs. 30,000 crore in investments in the coming years to reach its export target of U.S. $15 billion by 2010. And, the only way possible is for the industry to expand by investing from its own sources and through debt funding. With labour and infrastructure problems hampering foreign direct investment, TUFS was a big incentive for the apparel trade to expand and modernise," Vijay Agarwal, chairman, AEPC, had said.

A Rs. 100-crore disbursal from TUFS would induce about Rs. 2,500 crore worth of investments in the textile sector and generate employment for about one lakh people. Many apparel exporting companies had planned their future capital investments relying on this scheme and its sudden stoppage would jeopardise all their plans, he had said.

Government officials said that provision for additional funds would be made in the supplementary budget. The Government, meanwhile, has asked banks to continue processing applications for interest subsidy under TUFS.

The Government had provided Rs. 535 crore as budgetary allocation for 2006-07, but almost the entire sum was exhausted in the first quarter of this fiscal year amidst growing demand. Officials estimate that the requirement during 2006-07 under the scheme would be around Rs. 1,515 crore and the additional Rs. 1,000 crore would bridge the gap.

Mr. Agarwal said the textile and apparel industry was overwhelmed by the decision. "The move will come as a relief for companies which are in the process of capacity expansion," he added.

New printers from HP

Hewlett Packard on Thursday introduced a range of printing solutions for small and medium businesses with high-performance, cost-effective business printers.

The new-generation HP OfficeJet printers are based on HP's scalable printing technology, in which HP has invested over U.S. $1.4 billion worldwide, HP said in a statement here.

The new printers include the OfficeJet Pro K 850 series, a versatile wide-format printer with individual inks for small offices/businesses requiring performance, cost efficiency and easy sharing. HP also launched the HP OfficeJet 6318 All-in-One and the HP OfficeJet 4355 All-in-One.

"The value proposition of an HP All-in-One is to provide the functionality of a printer-scanner-copier-fax-phone along with value-added features such as camera direct capability, network-ready functionality and automatic scanning/copying capability without manual intervention," said Ashwini Aggarwal, HP India Sales Pvt. Ltd. Business Imaging and Printing Country Marketing Manager.

BEML bags export orders

Public sector engineering major Bharat Earth Movers Ltd. (BEML) has bagged export orders worth Rs. 42 crore from Tunisia and Syria for the supply of mining equipment and spares.

BEML clinched the orders against stiff competition from global players.

BEML has been expanding its overseas markets with the focus on Latin America, Africa and Indonesia. It has also opened overseas sales and service offices in China, Singapore and Morocco.

The company earned over Rs. 61 crore from exports during 2005-06 and hopes to achieve Rs. 121 crore during the current fiscal year.

`My Number' from Spice

Mobile telephone operator Spice Telecom has launched the `My Number' plan that allows its post-paid subscribers to chose the last five digits.

Post-paid subscribers opting for this plan can also choose their own preferred tariff between Super 99, Corporate Perks 199 and Full Value 249, a statement from Spice Telecom said here on Friday.

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