Notification on capex subsidy hike soon

The Union government will soon issue the notification for hiking the capital expenditure subsidy from 12 per cent to 15 per cent for the small scale industry (SSI) sector, said Union secretary for SSIs and agro and rural industries Anupam Dasgupta.

He was attending a meeting organised by the All India Association of Industries here on Saturday.

"The scheme to reimburse the cost of getting ISO 9000 and ISO 1400 certifications is functioning very efficiently. Similarly, the credit guarantee fund trust for small industries (CGFTSI) has guaranteed bank loans of Rs 25 lakh and more.

Dasgupta added that in the last one year 49 banks and financial institutions have given approvals to the plans submitted by SSIs under this scheme.

N K Maini, chief executive officer of the CGFTSI pointed out that the increase in capital expenditure subsidy would translate into a major gain for the SSI sector.

The raising of the project cost ceiling from Rs 3.67 crore to Rs 15 crore will result in SSI units going in for more capital investments gaining from a higher quantum of investment as well as a higher percentage of capital subsidy, he added.

Vijay Kalantri, president, AIAI said: "The Union Budget should have done more than just increasing the SSI eligibility of units. While Chidambaram has raised the annual turnover limit from Rs 3 crore to Rs 4 crore for units coming under the SSI category, the limit ideally should have been raised to Rs 5 crore. This is because the input costs have gone up substantially and the cost of inflation has not been factored in."