Govt considering including medium enterprises in SSI

NEW DELHI: The government will soon initiate the process for changing the definition of small scale sector to include small and medium enterprises and finalise draft of a comprehensive legislation for the sector by the year-end, Minister for Small Scale Industries Vasundhara Raje said on Wednesday.
"We will soon call a meeting with the stakeholders of SSI sector to discuss the proposed change in the definition of SSI to SME," Raje said.
"We have also asked SSI Board members to send their views on the draft SSI law formulated by the Administrative Staff College, Hyderabad, by August 15. We are keen to finalise the draft of the law by the year-end," she said.
Raje pointed out that change in definition of SSI sector to include SME mooted by the S P Gupta committee had earlier met with a lot of resistance, but there had now been a change of the mind-set.
"The sector is now more open to the idea which is welcome as we hope that change in definition will help the sector upgrade technology and attract more investment," she said.
Raje said the SSI ministry would also circulate the draft of the SSI law to the other ministeries after incorporating the suggestions of the SSI Board.
The ministry has also made suggestions to the Labour Commission on introducing graded exemption to the SSI sector from the purview of labour laws on the basis of the number of people employed.
"For instance we have asked the khadi industry to be exempted from labour laws," she said, adding that the ministry had also suggested SSI units employing less than 20 workers to be exempted from labour laws.