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Kerala
By Our Staff Reporter
A joint memorandum submitted by the Kannur units of the CITU-affiliated Keltron Employees' Association (KEA), the INTUC-affiliated Keltron Employees' Congress (KEC) and the independent Keltron Employees' Organisation (KEO) to the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, and the Industries Minister, P.K. Kunhalikutty, appealed to the Government to reject the recommendation that was learnt to have been sent to the Cabinet for approval, a press release by the union district unit secretaries, E. Raveendran (KEA), P.V. Raveendranath (KEC) and K. Surendran (KEO), said here. The memorandum said that the KCCL, a subsidiary unit of the Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation (KSEDC) that manufactured electrolytic capacitors, is a number one company in this sector in Asia. The unit, which has secured ISO 9001 certification, employs 334 persons directly and as many people indirectly, the memorandum says. The KCCL, located at the Keltron Complex at Mangattuparamba along with other Keltron units, the Keltron Crystals Ltd. (KXL), Keltron Resistors Ltd. (KRL) and Keltron Magnetics Ltd. (KML) manufactured 187.666 million capacitors and recorded a sales turnover of Rs. 30 crores during 2002-2003. Reminding the Government that the State and Central Government get an annual revenue of around Rs. 6 crores by way of Excise duty, sales tax and income tax from the KCCL, the memorandum says the unit targets to manufacture 220 million capacitors and enhance sales turnover to Rs. 45 crores during the current financial year. The memorandum says that the repayment of the Rs. 8 crores foreign institutional loan availed in 1989 for mobilising capital investment to enhance KCCL's production capacity from 50 million to 150 million capacitors has started to suffocate the KCCL. Up to 1999, the KCCL repaid Rs. 18.5 crores to the financial institutions, including the ICICI, IDBI and IFCI following the depreciation of the rupee against the dollar with the exchange rate of the rupee falling from Rs. 16 in 1991 to Rs. 46. An amount of Rs. 7.29 crores still remains to be repaid, it says adding that none of the efforts by the management to settle this financial liability has succeeded. The employees unions jointly raised a demand at the ERC meeting on March 21 last that the Government sanction funds for one-time settlement (OTS) of the KCCL's financial liability and the ERC chairman informed the meeting that the funds would be sanctioned, the memorandum says. The decision at that meeting was that a proposal would be submitted to the Government to sanction Rs. 9.5 crores as long-term interest-free loan during 2003-2004 for the KCCL's OTS plan. The ERC chairman also said at the meeting the special consideration was being given to the KCCL because of its performance. The employees' unions also say that they collectively opposed at the meeting the ERC recommendation to convert the KCCL as an independent unit by de-linking it from Keltron, stating that the ERC could not offer a clear explanation on the objective of the proposed de-linking. The memorandum conveys the unions' protest at the ERC's recommendation that OTC aid should be sanctioned to the KCCL after its de-linking from the Keltron group goes against the decisions taken at the meeting. The recommendation is seen as part of a move to privatise the unit. The memorandum was also sent to the Leader of the Opposition, Labour Minister, UDF convener and the Ministers hailing from the district, the union leaders said.
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