The Hindu : Centre keen on single law for SSIs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 05, 2003

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Business

Centre keen on single law for SSIs

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE May 4. The Union Minister for Small Scale Industries, C.P.Thakur, said today that the Centre was keen on a proposal to formulate a "single law" replacing the "inspector raj" in the small-scale industries sector.

Speaking after inaugurating a State-level convention on "Small-scale industries in Karnataka'', organised by the BJP here, Dr. Thakur said the existing plethora of Acts, rules, and regulations governing small-scale industries had resulted in the much detested "inspector raj", which had caused enormous hurdles to the development of the sector.

He said sometime ago, the Centre asked the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) to study the impact of these laws, rules, and regulations on the working of the sector. The ASCI had submitted its final report, according to which, the Centre was contemplating enacting a "single law'' to govern the sector.

Dr. Thakur expressed the hope that the measure would go a long way in mitigating the hardship faced by small-scale industries.

He said that there appeared to be serious apprehensions in the minds of entrepreneurs, especially those in the small-scale sector, about globalisation and liberalisation, and WTO agreements. Most of the apprehensions were due to lack of awareness on these issues.

He stressed the need to make entrepreneurs aware of benefits in the post-WTO regime. In this direction, his ministry had organised 28 workshops on WTO sensitisation, 16 on anti-dumping, and 28 on IPR.

This measure would continue to receive the focussed attention of the Government, he said.

Dr. Thakur said the 10th Five Year Plan envisaged a greater role for the sector because it had emerged as a vibrant and dynamic segment of the Indian economy. It had been assigned a higher growth rate of 12 per cent against eight per cent of the overall economy.

Stating that IT would play a key factor in the growth of the sector, Dr. Thakur said the pioneering contribution of Karnataka to IT could be of great help in upgrading technology and marketing products manufactured by SSIs through the IT linkage.

The President of the Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, K.N.Jayalingappa, in his keynote address said the sector had made an impressive contribution towards building a robust and stable economy. Despite its 41 per cent capacity utilisation, the sector had made a wonderful impact.

Mr. Jayalingappa pleaded that the sector be given a level playing ground.

He said the complaint that the sector was the main culprit in non-performing assets of banks and other financial institutions came from a "misplaced belief".

Referring to the power sector, Mr. Jayalingappa said power had become one of the costliest inputs for SSIs, and the deterioration in the quality of power had compounded the problems faced by them.

He urged the Centre to take steps to set up a 10,000-MW power generation project in the State by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).

The BJP leaders, M.R.Tanga, Ramachandra Gowda, and others participated in the convention organised by the Small-scale Industries Cell of the BJP.

The Convener of the cell, Bhadragiri Sarvothama Pai, welcomed the delegates.

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Centre keen on single law for SSIs