Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 18: Bari Brahmana Industries Association has alleged that State Government has failed to release the payments of unit holders.
A meeting of the Association was held today under the chairmanship of its president, Lalit Mahajan in the presence of Tarun Singla, Ajay Langer, Viraaj Malhotra and others to discuss the acute financial crisis being faced by the local SSI units due to non release of payment worth crores of rupees by various Govt Departments, who procured the material on the basis of valid purchase orders.
It is pertinent to mention here that bills amounting to Rs 200 crores for the material supplied by SSI units to Power Development Department under the Central/ State Govt Scheme directly to the Department and Rs 72 crores for the material supplied through SICOP pending since last six to nine month resulting acute financial crisis being faced by the Unit holders as their Bank limits stand exhausted. The matter has been brought into the knowledge of Principal Secretary Power Development Department with the repeated requests for the release of payment but nothing has been done which shows the negative attitude of the Power Development Department towards the Small Scale Sector of the State.
The position is more serious as SICOP failed to release the payment of material supplied by SSI Units to various Govt Department through SICOP due to non- release of payment amounting to nearly Rs 450 crores by various Govt Departments to SICOP against the valid supply orders in spite of the facts that the Finance Department issued necessary directions to all the Govt Departments to clear their outstanding of the material received prior to 31-10-2019.
The SSI units on the verge of closure due to non release of payments in time resulting into huge financial losses due to accumulated Bank interest on the money borrowed from the Banks as working capital resulting unit holders are not in a position to pay the Wages/Power Bills/GST Payments/Bank Interest & other Govt dues and we fear that the accounts of the unit holders may be converted into NPA by the banks resulting unit holders have no option but to close down their units in near future which may be resulting in to the mass scale retrenchment of Industrial workers mostly sons of the Soil. BBIA appealed to Lieutenant Governor Girish Chandra Murmu to intervene into the matter.