The Hindu Business Line : Jaswant to meet bank chiefs to extend credit for small sector

THE Union Minister for Small Scale Industries (SSI), Dr C.P. Thakur, said a meeting of the Finance Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, and heads of various commercial banks would be held shortly to discuss the issue of extending credit facilities to the SSI sector.

Dr Thakur said though the Finance Ministry had issued guidelines to banks to extend credit to SSI at plus or minus one or two per cent of the prime lending rate, the banks were not following the guidelines. The banks were not coming forward to give credit to the SSI in spite of the fact that their non-performing assets were a result of default in repayment by the big industrial units rather than SSI.

Stating that SSI accounted for 34 per cent of our exports, the Minister emphasised the need for extending credit facilities for the survival of this sector, particularly in the post-WTO era. He also said it was essential to develop national and global markets for SSI products. In this regard, he pointed out that 30 per cent of the Government purchases in the US were from the SSI sector in that country.

Speaking at the National Institute of Small Industries Extension and Training (Nisiet) here on Monday, Dr Thakur said, ``We have to study the world market for SSI products. India has to do its homework. Organisations like Nisiet should give the latest information to entrepreneurs in this regard. In fact, such institutions should be ahead of time ".

The Minister said that reforms should have a human face that would take care of the poor and downtrodden. He suggested that Nisiet should develop a programme that would transform the poor into entrepreneurs. The Government would extend the necessary guarantees to enable the poor to secure the credit facility for establishing small enterprises.

The Nisiet Principal Director, Dr Chukka Kondaiah, said the institute had so far held more than 300 international seminars and its activities were extended to various developing countries. Dr B.S. Sudhakar Rao, Head of Nisiet's Employees Assistance Cell, said last fiscal the institution had retrained and redeployed 1500 voluntarily retired employees of various Central Public Undertakings.

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