FASII to seek consensus

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, DEC. 20. The Federation of Associations of Small Industries of India (FASII) will seek a political consensus in the next three months to evolve a national agenda and minimum programme for protecting and nourishing small scale industries, according to Mr. J. M. Pawar, who has recently taken over as President of FASII.

``Even normally, it is small scale industry which takes care of the bulk of employment in the country. Its role has become more important for the nation when divestment of public sector and voluntary retirement schemes in both the public and private sectors are increasing'', Mr. Pawar said.

Talking to The Hindu today, he said the present situation of SSIs closing down for lack of orders because of recession and competition from low-cost imports should not be allowed to continue.

Mr. Pawar said FASII would seek to promote the concept of consortium exports and technology upgradation. It was keen that SSIs should take full advantage of the country's potential especially in agro-processing and biotechnology.

Regarding the eviction of polluting units from residential areas in Delhi, he said such threats could emanate for SSIs located in other cities too. FASII wanted the government's technological and financial support for those units which could mitigate pollution in their present location and continue to operate there, while support in the form of land and industrial infrastructure should be given to other units for shifting to designated areas.

Mr. Pawar said the Government should not decide on dereservation of any product line without holding consultations with the industries concerned.

Earlier, speaking at a day-long seminar on `Can SSIs face the WTO', he said there was no doubt that SSIs could face the challenges and take advantages of the opportunities afforded by the WTO regime, provided governments and industry associations played their due role in dealing with problems relating to cost, quality and competitiveness.

Mr. V. S. Narasimhan, immediate past-President of FASII, warned that privatisation of nationalised banks would choke the flow of credit to the small and tiny industry sectors and agriculture since the private sector banks would prefer to service a small number of large borrowal accounts. The Reserve Bank of India's `guidelines' on priority sector lending had little force, he alleged.

While banking sector reform was being done `in great haste' and banks were sought to be privatised on the U.S. model, the Government did little to support small industry in a big way on the model of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The U.S. SBA, he pointed out, mandated minimum procurement of 25 per cent of government purchases from small businesses and offered adequate guarantee for loans extended to small units. In the case of threat from imports, the SBA was mandated to act to safeguard the interests of small businesses.

Mr. Narasimhan wanted FASII to take up with the Centre the question of introduction of a law on petty patents (otherwise known as utility models) to protect incremental innovations, enactment of a law on limited partnership and strict monitoring of imports. Whatever could be produced in the country should not be allowed to be imported liberally or dumped, by creating non- tariff barriers, as the U.S. itself was doing, he said.

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