Coimbatore: The industrialists of various associations today met with the press to highlight their pleas to the government. They said that “castings plays a vital role in all industrial manufacturing processes and since more than 80% of the workforce is catered by migrant workers the entire industrial sector is reeling under crisis.
Coimbatore: The industrialists of various associations today met with the press to highlight their pleas to the government. They said that “castings plays a vital role in all industrial manufacturing processes and since more than 80% of the workforce is catered by migrant workers the entire industrial sector is reeling under crisis.
Hence both the state and the central governments should help in bringing back the migrant workers and also to issue exclusive e-passes for industries.”
Joint Council of Associations of Coimbatore which include, Codissia, ICCI, CII, IIF, SIEMA, COINDIA, Lagu Udyog Bharati, COTMA, KOPMA and their office bearers addressed the press and media today.
On behalf of the joint council, 'CODISSIA' president R. Ramamurthy said, “Castings play a vital role in all the manufacturing sectors. There are more than 600 foundries in Coimbatore district and all of them are struggling due to the lack of workforce. Main reason is 80% of the total workforce are migrant labours and since most of them have gone back to their hometowns, casting manufacturing has affected very badly which is reflecting in all the other industries.
We request the government to help in bringing back the migrant workers back to Coimbatore. Transportation and testing of migrant workers is too costly for MSMEs to bear and hence the government should make arrangements for the same. On the other side industries will arrange the accomodation and follow all guidelines issued by the government for the industries.
E-pass is another big issue which has hit all the industries very badly. We welcome the chief ministers announcemet in providing E-Pass to all from August 17. We request the government to provide exclusive E-Pass for industry sector to which all the industrialists will take responsibility in implementing it in a proper way without any violation.
Moratorium period for interest payments and all existing loans should be extended upto 2021, March, 31. The accrued interest during the moratorium should be converted into a term loan and can be paid during the next 2 years starting from 2021, April. Above all banks should not levy interest on accrued interest. NPA norms should be relaxed and extended for two years. Central government should also consider revising GST to increase consumption.”
He also added that “Duty credit scrips should be allowed for using payment of IGST and also at the time of imports, the importers should be allowed to use credit of IGST paid. Central government should advise PF and ESI departments, not to insist MSMEs to pay huge penalties on old cases based on section 7A.”
During lockdown period many MSMEs have not been able to make statutory payment or submit returns under various acts. Hence a plea was placed to request the government to excempt MSMEs from interest or penal action for such discrepancies for the financial year 2020-21.
He further added, “We request the state government to adjust the electricity charges against the security deposit which is already available with TNEB. After a period of one year after resumption, the security deposit can be collected. We request the state government to grant Rs 5 lakhs for Micro industries and Rs 15 lakhs for small scale industries to reboot the sector.
We have submitted all the above requests to Prime minister, Central finance minister, Chief Minister and deputy chief minister of Tamilnadu, Minister SP Velumani.
He insisted that “Initially all the people were afraid about the 'Covid-19' infection. But now it is very clear that we have to start living with it untill Vaccination is introduced. Hence it is time to move on by strictly following the rules and guidelines given by the government such as wearing masks, washing hands frequently, following social distancing”.