The statement had also mentioned that large scale units did not hold payments due to the SSI units.

In a press release, Deora said the investment limit of Rs. 3 crore for the SSI sector was on the higher side though the Abid Hussain committee had gone into the issue in detail and recommended the limit in view of a number of factors like inflation in the last 5 years, devaluation of the rupee, cost of pollution prevention equipment, cost of generator sets, tools, jigs, fixtures etc which were not covered in the earlier limit set in 1991.

The committee had, however, admitted that "we are recommending a somewhat higher limit both for tiny enterprises and for small and medium enterprises so that thethreshold level does not provide any disincentive to growth of small enterprises for the next five years".

Deora also emphasised that it was necessary that the labour laws were simplified so that the export sector had the flexibility to hire and lay off labour as per requirement.

Besides, the present excise exemption limit of Rs 30 lakh which was fixed long time ago had lost its significance and therefore it needed to be revised upwards and Rs. 1 crore should be the right limit, he felt.

According to him, the SSI sector should be permitted to affix the brand/logo/name of the exporter or his foreign buyer as may be required by him at the time of manufacturing goods for export. Hitherto, the excise exemption had ceased to exist after the a SSI unit stamped the brand/loco/name of any one else. Such a restriction on exports should be lifted so long as the brand was not misused, he added.

Meanwhile, FIEO and Delhi Exporters Association are disappointed at the credit policy for the slack season announced bythe Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday. Ramu Deora, in a statement, said the credit policy was not in tune with the progressive trade policy announced by commerce minister Ramakrishna Hegde a few days back.

Deora recalled that at the meeting of chairmen of all export promotion councils and commodity boards with Ramakrishna Hegde on April 25, it was agreed that at least a 20 per cent export growth would be achieved this year.With the credit policy denying any incentive or concession to exporters by way of reducing the interest rates, how could they meet the expectations of the government, Deora asked.

He said FIEO had been expecting the RBI to come out with a credit policy that would have enabled exporters to obtain funds at lower cost in order to achieve the 20 per cent export growth. Considering that the export growth in 1997-98 was expected to justaround 2.6 per cent and that exporters had a tremendous challenge before them to raise this rate to at least 20 per cent, Deora said the least that the RBIcould have done was to lower the cost of export credit to a very reasonable limit of a single digit.