Clear pending claims of Rs 210 cr
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 1: Federation of Industries, Jammu (FoIJ) has urged the Government of India to save the existing MSME units from closure in the Jammu and Kashmir.
A meeting of the FoIJ was held today under the chairmanship of TS Reen in presence of Lalit Mahajan, Jatinder Aul and Deepak Dhawan Co-Chairmen, FoIJ, Viraaj Malhotra secretary general, Pardeep Vaid convenor and other members of the FoIJ.
Federation of Industries, Jammu demanded price/ purchase preference for procurement of goods/works from local MSME units by State/Central Govt Departments working in Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
The members present in the meeting raised serious concern towards the negative attitude of the Govt Departments related to the Industrial Sector resulting the existing MSME Units on the verge of closure which may be resulting the retracement of lakhs of Industrial workers in near future.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Fiscal Incentives announced by Govt exist only on papers as Industries Department failed to release the pending claims amounting to nearly Rs 210 crores for the Financial Year 2021-22 in spite of repeated requests and reminders to enhance the Budgetary allocations from Rs 50 crores to Rs 210 crores resulting the working capital of the existing Units stands blocked.
Reen pointed out that marketing support to existing Industrial Units after August 5, 2019, is not good as the major purchase has been shifted to GeM Portal by ignoring the purchase preference incentives given by the previous Govt in the past. It is not possible for the existing MSME Units to procure the orders due to higher prices of raw materials due to locational disadvantages. Further the Govt Departments purchasing the goods through tendering process always prefer to buy goods from outside suppliers. Now the MSME Units dependent on the Govt Department supplies through SICOP are facing the closure in near future.
FoIJ invited the attention of Union Home Minister Amit Shah that the present focus of the Industries Department is only towards the establishment of new units for which the developed land is not available resulting numbers of proposed investors already shifted to other State and on the other hand due to negative attitude of the Industries and Finance Department the existing working Units are suffering very badly.
The other issues discussed in the meeting pertained to non- availability of Fiscal Incentives to existing Units on substantial expansion, power amnesty, non- availability of funds with J&K SIDCO/ SICOP for the up- gradation and cleaning of existing Industrial Estate and pending cases of Delayed Payment Act in the office of Chairman, Facilitation Council etc.
FoIJ sought intervention of Lt Governor and Vikramjit Singh, Commissioner Industries & Commerce Department to constitute a high level committee with the participation of Stake holders to resolve the issue for the survival of the existing Industrial units.
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