VELLORE: The Vellore District Small and Tiny Industries Association has sought a special package of support from the Narendra Modi government for the forthcoming Budget.
R Amirthakatesan, president of the association, said the support should be in the form of modifying the existing schemes and introducing new ones to give the necessary fillip to this sector, that has been contributing in terms of revenue generation of around 60 per cent in manufacturing and 40 per cent in exports.
Amirthakatesan said the government should grant 90 per cent subsidy for establishing 2 MW solar power plants for the MSME units and similar subsidy package for agriculture and solar lighting for the domestic sector. Power projects aimed at tapping energy from tidal waves must also be seriously explored, he added.
He said there was the need for revamping the lending for micro sector to be fixed around 15 per cent of allocation of the budget. The interest rate for loan given for the MSME should be considered on par with agriculture sector while the exemption limit for central excise and customs duty should be enhanced to `10 crore, he added. The service tax exemption limit for the MSME and SSI industrial sectors should be revised from the present limit of `10 lakh to `50 lakh he said.
The association president urged the Modi government to take steps to encourage export of the MSME products by facilitating the availability of worksheds, raw material, bank loans and power concessions as was done in China. “A new export policy to enable SSI to meet global competition must be introduced,” he added.
The existing credit guarantee fund trust loan scheme for the MSME and SSI sector, which offered collateral-free loan upto `1 crore was seldom considered by nationalised banks and State financial institutions, he said.
He said the labour and taxation Acts should be amended to suit the MSME while freeing this sector of ‘inspection raj’. The MSME and the Small-Scale Industries (SSI) should be exempted from the ESI Act but the employees in this sector must be covered by the ESI benefits by collecting nominal contribution from the MSME based on the investment criterion.