Union Minister for Power Assured SIEMA
Sushil Kumar Shinde, Union Minister for Power, assured the Southern India Engineering Manufacturer’ Association (SIEMA) that he would look into the problems arising out of implementation of star rating by Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) for pumpsets. According to a press note issued by SIEMA president Jayakumar Ramadass here on Saturday, the representatives of the Pump and Motor panel, SIEMA and Coimbatore Industrial Infrastructure Association (COINDIA), along with Coimbatore constituency MP K Subbarayan, met the union minister of power in New Delhi on Thursday and briefed him of the problems in implementing star rating for pumpsets for standardising and labelling programme of BEE under union ministry of power. SIEMA has been playing a vital role in implementing the star rating for pumpsets under the BEE programme since 2001.Jayakumar said that the representatives requested the minister to reduce the firm registration fee as a special concession to Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSME). Other demands and suggestions were: production registration fee should be Rs 1000 based on the product category and Bureau of Indian Standards License Number and also indication of maximum retail price (MRP) should be removed from name plate as it was not generally applicable for pumpsets.
The SIEMA also pointed out to the minister that the scheme of testing and inspection (STI) for compliance of BEE norms was not clear and transparent. It feared that if the monitoring mechanism was not clearly laid out, it would lead to misuse of BEE marking. The association said that products like refrigerators and air conditioners were sold in the market with the category from 3 star to 5 star level. But the pumpsets was rated between single star and two star only. It would give a bad impression to the customers, the association further pointed out.
