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The government is firming up a Construction Equipment Manufacturing (CEM) legislation to introduce a separate regulatory framework and Act for off-highway equipment, a top official said on Wednesday.
The proposed legislation is similar to the Central Motor Vehicle Rules and will soon be placed before Parliament for its enactment. It will cover construction equipment that is not wheeled and aim to curb the use of spurious parts.
Setting standards
“The new regulations are for off-highway construction equipment which are not wheeled because for the wheeled, the Road and Transport Ministry is making regulations,” Heavy Industries Secretary Girish Shankar said at an Assocham event.
“Standards will be set on what kind of people can operate these machines. This will be an enabling enactment. Along with that, it will provide for testing and certification of equipment.”
Asked when the proposed legislation will become a reality, Shankar said, “As soon as possible. We have to hear from the stakeholders, particularly the construction and equipment industry. They will present their views very soon. Once they are available, we will finalise the draft and bring it before Parliament.”
He explained that the legislation is required because the industry has to gear itself towards quality and adoption of the right technology and discourage the use of spurious spare parts.
External borrowing
The Secretary said the Heavy Industry Ministry has also proposed allowing use of external commercial borrowing (ECB) to finance domestic equipment, excluding construction equipment in future FTAs, including locally produced construction equipment in export market access incentives and developing a dedicated R&D and advanced test facility.
“How to improve on the input costs via financing external commercial borrowings, those things are being considered,” Shankar said.
He said the ministry would take up the issues in leasing, particularly those of multiple taxation, with the Finance Ministry.
“We have to introduce a friendlier tax structure to introduce a separate regulatory framework and Act for off- highway equipment. We have already drafted a legislation for CEM,” Shankar said.
Industry 4.0
The government is setting up experience centres for advanced manufacturing where stakeholders can get a first-hand knowledge on the benefits of adoption of Industry 4.0.
“We will be creating experience centres along with the industry, academia and the equipment suppliers, equipment for Industry 4.0, particularly the automation and the software industries. We have already finalised one with partnership with IIT Kharagpur,” Shankar said.
“We are thinking of having it in Bengaluru and other places where even smaller units, medium scale industry can experience how they can adopt Industry 4.0 and improve their productivity and become more competitive,” he added.
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