To boost investment in MSMEs, Centre dereserves 20 items

The items include exercise books and registers; wax candles; laundry soap; fireworks; agarbatties; glass bangles; steel almirah; rolling shutters; steel chairs and tables of all types; padlocks; stainless steel utensils, and domestic utensils of aluminium.

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The move, the ministry said, will help the MSME sector to attract greater investment, and incorporate better technologies while enhancing competition. It will also help them standardise their products and increase their reach in the global market.

Earlier, these 20 items were reserved for manufacturing exclusively by the micro, medium and small enterprises (MSME) and any non-MSME unit, desirous of manufacturing these items, needed an industrial license, which was issued with an obligation to export 50 per cent of the new additional annual production, to be achieved within a maximum period of three years. However, later the advisory committee was constituted under section 29B(2C) of the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951, to periodically de-reserve products reserved for exclusive production by MSE.

The committee had already reduced the number of items from over 800 to 20 and the decision to de-reserve the remaining items was taken last year in a meeting held on October 21, arguing that there was no prima facie justification for continuation of reservation of manufacturing.