Assam Industry Minister Chandramohan Patowary has said the State Government will bring about a new Act to ensure preferential treatment to goods produced by micro, small and medium-scale industries.
“Cabinet note is prepared and a new act which will give preferential treatment to MSMEs and small scale industries of the state will come soon. We are expecting to get it cleared in the cabinet shortly. The new act will be for 10 years,” said Patowary.
In a bid to encourage small scale and cottage industries in Assam, the new Act will be a replacement to the already scrapped ‘Assam Preferential Stores Purchase Act, 1989’, which was aimed to encourage growth of industries in the state and to implement the Industrial Policy announced and published by the government of Assam. Small industries, Khadi and cottage industries registered under this Act were exempted from payment of earnest money and security deposit for items in respect of which the units are registered.
The state industry minister also informed that Assam MSMEs will soon be blessed with an exclusive scheme. Under the scheme, small traders/enterprises will be supported by way of providing a seed fund of upto Rs 2 lakh, he further briefed.
“Government will provide the promoter equity and entrepreneurs can tie up with banks. The scheme will be rolled out in another 10 to 15 days’ time,” he said.
The scheme comes in as a rescue-force for GST-burdened MSMEs in the state for providing budgetary support. The details of the scheme will be available when the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion notifies it, including detailed operational guidelines.
