Household nano units in Kerala to get mega push

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Home-based manufacturing or service units that are smaller than even micro units, and which had never been officially defined nor provided any sort of financial assistance, will now get a major push. What’s more, such units will be given power incentives, too. Such units with an investment of Rs 5 lakh or less, mostly units employing five or less people and engaged in the supply of raw materials to larger units, will henceforth be called ‘household nano enterprises’.  Importantly, they will be granted financial assistance in the form of interest subvention, which in other words mean that the state will take over a portion of the unit’s interest burden.

What’s more, such units A ‘household nano enterprise’ is defined as one in which the fixed capital investment is Rs 5 lakh or less in both manufacturing and units engaged in job work. These units should also be in the ‘white’ category as per pollution control norms. The decision to support ‘nano’ units is also an attempt to popularise such units.  “Government will promote decentralised manufacturing in homesteads. This will enable people to work from homes, with flexible hours, without neglecting their families. It will help foster an industrial climate in the state at the grassroots,” a top industries and commerce department official said. The State’s Draft Industrial Policy, too, has underscored the importance of ‘nano’ units. “An advantage of such a development will be that environmental issues will be avoided to certain extent,” the draft policy states. 

Given the new importance accorded to them, nano units are offered other incentives, too. Power for such units using up to 5 HP will be charged only at domestic tariff.  They also will not be required to get a licence from the concerned local body. Majority of enterprises in the state fall in the category of ‘micro’ with fixed capital investments of Rs 10 lakh and below.  “However, the state is characterised by a large number of service enterprises and job works that are not provided with any financial assistance by the government,” the official said and added: “The government now considers it important to promote ‘nano’ sector as this constitutes the key economic sector of the state.”