Textile manufacturing units in Tirupur knitwear cluster to get classified under micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) based on the annual turnover, and not on the investments made on plant and machinery.

As per the new classification, the units with annual turnover less than Rs. 5 crore would be termed ‘micro enterprise’, the units with annual turnover of more than Rs. 5 crore and less than Rs. 75 crore would be put under ‘small enterprise’ category, and the units with turnover between Rs. 75 crore and Rs. 250 crore would be classified as ‘medium enterprise’.

They can now avail the government benefits extended for such units following the changes made in ‘classification criteria’ of industrial units.

According to Tirupur Exporters and Manufacturers Association secretary G. R Senthivel, the new classification will trigger growth and encourage ease of doing business.

S. Dhananjayan, advisor to many textile bodies said that this is a significant step, which will now enable almost 98 % of the textile manufacturing units in Tirupur to get classified under MSMEs.

The earlier criteria prevented unit having more than Rs. 10 crore capital investment on plant and machinery from being classified as MSME.