CII urges Government to pass Small Enterprise Development Bill

New Delhi, Mar 12 (UNI) The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) today urged the Government to have the Small Enterprise Development (SED) Bill passed in Parliament in the current session itself, as this, along with the positive features of Budget 2006-07 provides a solid foundation for the future growth of the SME sector.

The Chamber bemoaned that the SED Bill, which was tabled in the Lok Sabha in May 2005, has yet to see the light of the day and its passing was an event which this dynamic sector has been looking for.

CII National Council for SME Development Chairman Deep Kapuria hailed several pragmatic features in the budget relating to the SME sector particularly ''up-scaling the size'' and ''technological upgradation'' as these prompted a change in the mindset of entrepreneurs in the sector.

He said, ''budgetary initiatives would have a further productive impact, if the Small Enterprises Development (SED) Bill would be enacted and implemented.'' The proposed five-year National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme, as finalised by the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) to be implemented through ten schemes, is an offshoot of CII's continuous focus on enhancing competitiveness of the SMEs, through the cluster approach, he said.

''The areas identified for implementing these schemes are meant for promotion of ICT, mini tool rooms, design clinics and marketing support for SMEs,'' Mr Kapuria said, adding that ''CII will work closely with the Government of India as part of the PPP model, for implementing these schemes.'' The identification of some SME-dominated sectors (in manufacturing and services) for exploiting their employment generation capacity with appropriate incentives, has been welcomed by the CII, as they are the store houses of huge job opportunities.

These include textiles, food processing, petroleum, chemicals and petro-chemicals, leather, and automobiles. In services, tourism and software, have been identified as potential job creating sectors.

The chamber has been advocating the dereservation of 180 items from the reserved list on the anticipated lines of the gradual and phased dereservation.

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