Codissia calls for relaxations in defence procurement policy

The defence procurement policy should be relaxed so that more Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (MSMEs) can participate in the defence sector, said Coimbatore District Small Industries Association.

This was one of the resolutions passed at the annual meeting of the Association held on Monday.

According to a press release from the Association, it was also decided to appeal to the Central Government to treat MSMEs as priority sector and earmark a special budget provision for the sector. The government should constitute a committee to regulate the 25 % compulsory purchase obligations of Public Sector Undertakings, defence, and railways to MSMEs. The obligatory purchase from MSMEs should be increased to 40 %, it said.

Further, the government should come out with a scheme to help MSME upgrade to better technologies. The accelerated depreciation for three years should be extended to all MSMEs that go for expansion or modernisation.

An NSIC warehouse should be made available for MSME units here so that the finished goods could be stocked at a concessional rate. This will also enable the units sell the products on e-commerce portals.

M. V. Ramesh Babu of Paramount Platers was elected president of the Association for 2020-22. V. Thirugnanam of Meridian Mediteck and PS Devaraj of Khayzen System India are the vice-presidents, M. Karthikeyan of Sukshma Dynamics is the secretary, R. Shasikumar of Metro Metal Finishers is the joint secretary and S. Soundararajan of Falcon Toolings in the treasurer.