Dereservation of 75 SSI sector items cleared

NEW DELHI: With the statutory assent by Parliament having been obtained, the government will soon notify de-reservation of 75 more items from the small-scale sector. The products to be de-reserved include chemicals and reagents, footwear, paper products and plastics. With this, the number of products reserved for SSI manufacturing would come down from 749 to 674.
Besides, the ceiling on investment in plant and machinery for being reckoned as an SSI would be raised soon from Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore in case of 23 products-13 stationery items and 10 drugs. The proposal by the SSI ministry, which has received parliament’s assent in the budget session , is to up investment ceiling for products namely fountain and ball-point pens, ink, pencils, stapling machines, paper pins, pen nibs, pen components, carbon paper, type writer ribbons, sharpners, holders and hand numbering machines among the stationery category and para amino phenol, niacinamide, ethyl and propyl parabens, paracetamol, pyrazolones, benzyl benzoate, sodium salt, para hydroxy benzoic acid, calcium gluconate and aluminium hydroxide gel in the drugs category. The notifications will be issued by the industry ministry under the Industrial Development and Regulation.
These decisions had been taken considering the fact that dereservation of these items will not have any major impact on the business of SSI units but will facilitate technology upgradation and capital investment.
In the budget speech, the finance minister had announced the decision to withdraw SSI reservation of 75 items.