Describing the Budget as totally disappointing for the micro and small-scale manufacturing and service industries, Tamil Nadu Small & Tiny Industries Association on Friday said the Small Scale Industries have lost their confidence in the Finance Ministry and the Finance Minister, P Chidambaram.
A Shanmugavelayuthan, President of the Association, said, "This year's Budget has proved that the Ministry of Finance is doing nothing except lip service to this sector as in the past."
He said the Micro and SSI sectors practically will not get any benefit out of this Budget announcement except reduction of guarantee fee from 1.5 per cent to one per cent and annual service fee from 0.75 per cent to 0.5 per cent, for loans upto Rs five lakh under the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust Scheme.
"We welcome that the agriculture sector is getting debt waiver and debt relief under a scheme but at the same time the budget has neglected SSI sector that stands next to agriculture in production and creation of employment," he said.