Tamil Nadu Small and Tiny Industries Association (TANSTIA) has urged the government not to introduce new laws hastily without holding wide consultations with the stake holders.
Its president D. Gandhi Kumar told journalists here on Wednesday that the Centre was bringing in a slew of legislations and amendments at a hasty speed to meet its obligations to multilateral bodies.
He said that the trade body held discussions with officials recently on four World Trade Organisation agreements, namely non-agricultural market access (NAMA), fisheries, services and agriculture.
It was clear the tremendous challenges lay in the future owing to globalisation as duties on imports could be reduced drastically in a decade. “If the laws are hastily changed, it will lead to wide-spread economic problems and huge job losses in the country.” As complicated these laws were, many traders and entrepreneurs were completely unaware of such laws, he said.
Raw materials
The prices of raw materials and commodities were also witnessing extreme volatility in the last two years. This was mainly due to the Centre removing the price control norms about two years back, Mr. Gandhi Kumar said.
He pointed that materials like steels, copper and aluminium were being supplied only by a handful of public sector and private companies. He alleged that they were increasing the prices despite no escalation in their raw material or operating costs.
Interest rates
K. Gopalakrishnan, TANSTIA secretary, said that while the Government was brining in global norms and standards in many areas, it was refusing to bring down the credit interest rates to the 2 to 4 per cent levels in countries like China and South Korea.
To create awareness about the laws and also regarding the subsidies and schemes available to micro, small and medium enterprises, TANSTIA was holding meetings in many small towns, he said.
N. Somasundaram, President, Madurai District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association, spoke.
