In a bid to discuss the pressing issues faced by the industrial sector and revive the ailing industries in Coimbatore, a one-day district level conference was organised by Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) on Friday.
In a bid to discuss the pressing issues faced by the industrial sector and revive the ailing industries in Coimbatore, a one-day district level conference was organised by Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) on Friday.
Various industrial associations and their representatives took part in the meeting in which a resolution was passed to hold a bandh on December 13, if the centre and state continue to turn deaf ears to the issues faced by the industrial sector.
Addressing the gathering, G.R. Ramakrishnan said, "A series of economic policies introduced by the centre including demonetisation and GST has undoubtedly proved to be detrimental to the industries. According to a government data submitted in the TN assembly, a whopping number of 50,000 small scale industries have shut down operations."
He also alleged that despite knowing the woeful state of the industrial sector, the centre's poor planning and delay in devising plans to resuscitate ailing industrial sectors has worsened the situation. It is estimated that the closure of industrial units have doubled to one lakh. And, closure of units at this rate is distressing and has set the alarm bells ringing.
"The government should lend an ear to the pleas made by the industries and amend GST atleast during the upcoming GST Council meeting to be held in Goa on September 20. To the contrary, continous denial of the situation will result in huge downfall of industrial sector who will be forced to resort to massive protests."
Later, MP. P.R. Natarajan passed several resolutions during the meeting including fixing up annual cotton prices and raising the ceiling for declaring an industry as a small industry to 2 crore, among other resolutions.
The MP recalled the days when Tamil Nadu experienced consistent power cuts and the string of protests by the industries and labourers which forced the State to address the issue. He apprised that in a similar manner, a massive bandh will be organised on December 13, if the state and central governments fail to implement measures to revive the industrial sector.
Mahendran Ramadoss, MD, Mahendra Pumps spoke on the need to have labour unions. "Labour unions should be encouraged in any industry to raise a unified voice of workers and unions also help industries by serving as a body to conduct negotiations. As far as the economic slow down is concerned, building excess capacity is one important reason for the down turn."
He also opined that it was the industrial bodies who asked for GST implementation but which when implemented, left the industries in a worse state because it was not implemented in the right manner.
Jayaranjan, renowned economist threw light on various economic problems. "When an industry succumbs, along with it many ancillary and dependent industries will also experience a huge down turn. Moreover, it will take another five years for the central government to collect the expected taxes. Economic slow down has lead to huge unemployment. It is estimated that close to 2 crore people will lose their jobs, if this scenario prevails."
Associations including TACT, KOPMA and members of CITU participated in the meeting.