MSME urges govt to exclude exports from turnover by amending notification

Ludhiana, Jun 11 (KNN) Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in the state has urged the government to exclude exports from turnover by amending the notification and notifying the same at the earliest.

On Wednesday, the Federation of Industrial and Commercial Organisation (FICO) organised a meeting to discuss the issues related to the industry, where it was discussed that the government has not excluded exports from turnover.

The businessmen express their dissatisfaction over the inclusion of exports in the turnover limit set for defining the category of industry under the MSME Act.

“It was recently announced by the central government that in the new definition of MSMEs the firms having a turnover of up to Rs 250 crore, excluding the exports and investment of Rs 50 crore in plant and machinery, will be considered as an MSME unit,'' said Rajeev Jain, general secretary of FICO.

''But while notifying the same, the exclusion of exports has not been mentioned anywhere, so we request Nitin Gadkari, Union minister of MSME to exclude the exports from turnover by amending the notification and notifying the same at the earliest,” he added.

Speaking on the same, Gurmeet Singh Kular, president of FICO welcomed the government's move to modify MSME definition under which the new turnover limits have been set to determine the category of the industrial unit like micro, small and medium. 

''However, exports are still being counted in the turnover criteria, whereas it should be excluded from being added to the turnover and should not be used as the criteria to decide the category of the industrial unit,” he said.

Manjinder Singh Sachdeva, senior vice-president of the association, said that MSME will not be able to avail anything until and unless the definition of the MSME is properly formulated along with clearly defining each and every aspect, including the exports turnover.

''The government must implement all necessary suggestions, including proper notification about exclusion of the exports from turnover criteria in defining MSMEs,” Sachdeva asserted.

As per the new definition, micro units can have up to Rs 1 crore investments and turnover of up to Rs 5 crore while businesses with an investment of up to Rs 10 crore and turnover of up to Rs 50 crore will be classified as small.

The govt had proposed to tag medium enterprises as the one which has an investment of up to Rs 20 crore and turnover of less than Rs 100 crore.

However, on Jun 1, the Union cabinet had again revised and proposed to tag a company as medium enterprises with an investment up to Rs 50 crore and turnover up to Rs 250.

“Whether these are micro, small or medium enterprises, their export turnover will not be factored in,” Gadkari had said.