GOVT. PROPOSES NEW COMPREHENSIVE LEGISLATION
FOR SSI SECTOR
The Government has proposed to bring out a new comprehensive
legislation for the Small Scale Industries sector which will help
address many of the concerns of the sector like credit, marketing
and administrative bottlenecks. The outline of the proposed legislation
was prepared by the Administration Staff College of India, Hyderabad
which was commissioned by the Ministry of Small Scale Industries
for the purpose.
Presiding over the 47th Meeting of the
National SSI Board, here today, Smt. Vasundhara Raje, the Minister
of State of Small Scale Industries, invited suggestions from the
State Governments and SSI Associations on the draft legislation.
She said, the new law seeks to facilitate the process of making
progress in the right direction to enlarge the space of SSI sector.
The views and cooperation of the State Governments are vital as
many of the existing laws which concern SSIs, are state laws and
implementation is done be the agencies of State Government, she
said.
Smt. Raje also announced the launch of the Third
All India Census of Small Scale Industries. The Census, being
conducted after a gap of over a decade, is expected to provide
a wealth of data on the sector, especially in the context of a
post-liberalization and post-WTO scenario. The Census will, for
the first time, also cover unregistered units and document sickness
in the industry. She said that holding a Census of 26 lakhs registered
units and a sample survey of about 2.16 lakh unregistered units,
is a gigantic task and requires a lot of preparation and more
importantly full cooperation and support of all concerned which
includes states/UT Governments, SSIs, Industry Associations and
Data Processing Agencies. The Minister said that the operational
aspects of the Census would be discussed at the conference of
State Secretaries (Industries) and State Directors of Industries,
tomorrow.
Speaking of the occasion, the newly appointed Development
Commissioner of SSI, Shri Suresh Chandra said that SSI Board is
the highest forum to evaluate and discuss the impact of Government’s
policies on the development of SSIs. He said that the deliberations
of the Board help the Government chalk out new strategies and
schemes to be proactive in responding to the rapidly changing
business environment.
The meeting was attended by Industry Ministers of
States and Union Territories. Representatives of SSI Associations
across the country as well as senior officials from Government
and various financial institutions.
