RELIEF FOR
SSI SECTOR ANNOUNCED AT SSI CONVENTION
SMT.
RAJE DEFENDS SICKNESS IN SSI SECTOR
The Minister of Finance and Company Affairs, Shri Jaswant Singh
has announced the restoration of exemption limit of one crore
rupees for the ball and roller industries in the Small-Scale Industry
sector. In his address at the 3rd SSI Convention with
a theme "Toys" here today, Shri Singh also announced
that for the hand-processing sector, pre-Budget limit will be
made effective immediately. Certain exemption/relaxation of duty
on bicycle parts and accessories will also come into force with
immediate effect. The Finance Minister assured the small-scale
sector of all possible help and said that SSI’s demand for relief
in sales tax on electronic toys will be considered after VAT system
becomes operational in all states. He said that the Department
of Company Affairs is examining the feasibility of a Limited Partnership
Act, as demanded by the small scale sector.
Speaking o the occasion, the Minister of State for Small Scale
Industries, Smt. Vasundhara Raje said that in India, small-scale
industries are a huge constituency. There are 34 lakhs SSIs providing
jobs to almost two crore individuals, the second highest after
agriculture. Appreciating the banks for achieving the highest
standards of excellence in lending to SSIs, Smt. Raje said that
according to the figures released by the Reserve Bank of India,
the total outstandings of banks in the country, of about 25,700
crores, just 17.5% come from SSI units, while the remaining are
accounted for by the 3000 odd non-SSI units. In fact, nearly 2,50
lakh sick units are responsible for outstandings worth Rs. 4,500
crores only while just the top 10 defaulters to the banking sector
within themselves accounts for NPAs of over Rs. 41,00 crores,
she said. The Minister pointed out that sick units in the SSI
sector actually declined from over 3 lakh units to just under
2.5 lakh units with in the space of just the year gone by, whereas
in the non-SSI sector, the number of sick units actually increased
during the same period. She said that Government has taken many
steps and initiatives to strengthen SSI sector and now starting
a mentoring programme through NSIC where a large business shall
take a new or a small enterprise under its wing and nurture it
and enable to catalyse many more world class SSI. To assist in
greater dissemination of information at the state level, the Ministry
of SSI is directing all its field units to prepare an Annual Media
Plan in consultation with Doordarshan and All India Radio so as
to reach those SSIs which are spatially spread at locations away
from major towns.
In his welcome address, Shri Ashok Pradhan, Secretary SSI, said
that 50 million jobs are to be created in SSI sector during the
10th plan. While this involves efforts of various Ministries,
the SSI Ministry has suggested the adoption of a ‘mission mode’
approach to achieve this goal, he said.
In his vote of thanks, Shri Suresh Chandra, Development Commissioner,
SSI said that small-scale sector has been playing an important
role in coming income generation by providing economic opportunity.
He thanked Government and Non-Government organizations, entrepreneurs
and SSI associations, from across the country for their strong
cooperation for the overall development of SSI sector.
The Finance Minister Shri Jaswant Singh also released a set of
publications, brought out by the SSI Ministry to mark the occasion
and presented the National Awards to entrepreneurs for achieving
excellence in the SSI sector.
