MSME units pitch for benefits under package for Seemandhra

In Visakhapatnam alone, there are 1,500 to 1,800 MSME units with employment of around 25,000. Crying hoarse about the support being given to ancillarisation, MSME units, who invest around Rs.25 lakh to Rs.5 crore per unit, have made a strong pitch not to restrict tax holiday.

Managements of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in Visakhapatnam, who feel they are left high and dry for want of patronage, have upped the ante for extension of benefits under the package promised for Seemandhra.

Crying hoarse about the support being given to ancillarisation, MSME units, who invest around Rs.25 lakh to Rs.5 crore per unit, have made a strong pitch not to restrict tax holiday and other incentives envisaged under the package to new units in Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam, and Vizianagaram districts of the residual State of Andhra Pradesh.

In Visakhapatnam alone, there are 1,500 to 1,800 MSME units with employment of around 25,000 at Autonagar, Kancharapalem, Parawada, Gajuwaka, Gurrampalem (Pendurthy), Madhavadhara, and Anakapalle. They are involved in fabrication, welding, casting, paints, machining, ice plants, cold storage, and spare parts.

The major units on whom the MSME units depend on for their survival include Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, HPCL, Hindustan Shipyard Ltd, and Heavy Plate and Vessels Plant (HPVP).

“The VSP agreed to give orders up to Rs.50 lakh if five enterprises form into a group in August 2013. The Plant Level Committee is scheduled to meet next month to take stock of the situation. The HPVP has not issued a single work order to us after it became an independent unit of BHEL,” Visakha Autonagar Small-Scale Industrialists’ Welfare Association president Ramakrishna Narappareddy, has told The Hindu .

E-procurement

E-procurement policy has come as a big blow for the local entrepreneurs as the major industries have been rejecting the offers on the ground of not being cost effective and meeting quality parameters.

A. Ramesh, a transformer manufacturer, has said there should not be discriminatory treatment towards small units who suffer a lot due to heavy loan burden. Unreliable power supply itself is jacking up their production cost.

“The current situation is very bad with the government fleecing us with so many taxes. How can we grow if there is no encouragement? We are sure extension of package to existing units will make us breathe easy,” says a readymade garment exporter.