Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 17: Bari Brahmana Industries Association (BBIA) has claimed that fresh directives of the Union Finance Ministry to purchase material by all state Government departments through GeM portal will prove as death nail for the industrial sector in the Jammu and Kashmir.
A meeting of BBIA was held under the president-ship of Lalit Mahajan today wherein office bearers and other members seriously discussed the problem being faced by Industrial units due to issuance of circular by Finance Department for the purchase of material by all State Govt Departments through GeM Portal only.
During discussion the members raised serious concern in respect of circular issued by Finance Department vide Endorsement No. A/21(03)-I-Part File -II-927 dated 17-09-2019 by the virtue of which the directions issued to all the Departments for the purchase shall be made through GeM Portal.
It is pertinent to mention here as per the State Govt Policy in existence it is mandatory for the Govt Departments to purchase the requisite material from the local SSI units with the price preference of 20% on the landed cost of lowest offer received from outside the State with the provision of Items purchased through SICOP for the Items reserved duly manufactured by the Local SSI units keeping in mind the locational disadvantage, land lock state and additional cost of the raw materials and limited market within the State as it is not possible for the SSI Units to sold their products in the Interstate Sale.
The BBIA members said that the local units already working with 30 to 40% capacity utilization are not in a position to compete with the outside suppliers and if the purchases to be made through GeM Portal, the local unit holders have no option but to close down their units with the retracement of lakhs of Industrial workers and also it will put an adverse impact on the working of the SICOP who is the Nodal agency for providing Marketing support to local units having an turnover of Rs 800 crores.
The position is also more serious for the SSI Units of the J&K in the context of Govt Order No. 460-PW(Hyd) of 2019 dated 06-12-2019 in respect of tendering reforms process in the PHE/I&FC Department by the virtue of which all the new Projects/Scheme henceforth shall be executed on Turn key basis inclusive of all the components resulting Procurement Division not able to take the supply of Materials directly from the SSI Units.
They sought intervention of Lt Governor, Girish Chandra Murmu into the matter.
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