SME body demands separate ministry in states for sector

An industry body of micro and small enterprises has sought for a separate ministry in states to address issues related to sector.
The annual general meeting of the Laghu Udyog Bharati (LUB) will be held here tomorrow wherein issues related to the national MSME policy, GST and FDI will be discussed, its President Om Prakash Mittal said today.
"We will demand that the large-scale industries should develop a small patch of land within their boundaries for setting up new ancillary units for their industrial products/spares," he said told reporters here.
Their other demands include developing a land bank by a suitable infrastructure development authority which will be controlled by a department, he added.

Mittal further said that the trade body also wants a separate ministry for MSMEs in each states to address their issues.
He also demanded that those MSMEs which have been in operations for 20 years should be made free hold, and also allowing MSMEs to process local products like agricultural products, mining and other available raw materials and make it mandatory on large industries to procure from such units.
The estimated contribution of the MSME sector, including the service segment, to the country's GDP in 2012-13 was 37.54 per cent while the total employment in the sector is 805.24 lakh and the share of MSMEs in India's total exports for 2014-15 stood at 44.7 per cent.