More number of Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (MSMEs) are seeking the support of the facilitation council of the government to get payment arrears from larger industries.
B. Karthigaivasan, General Manager of District Industries Centre, said MSME facilitation council held four hearings for this region during the last six months and 12 cases had been settled with payments made to the tune of ₹ 88.57 lakh. Further, judgements were passed for 52 cases for ₹ 11 crore. As many as 225 cases were heard, including some cases that came up for second or third hearing.
Apart from this, 150 applications were pending.
Mr. Karthigaivasan said applications came to the council from across the region. After the lockdown, there were more applications. Most of these were from Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Erode, and Krishnagiri.
Usually, a large industry that gave job orders to vendors need to make the payment within the agreed period. Micro or small-scale enterprises approached the council when the pending amount was substantial or the large unit had severed business ties with the vendor. “There seems to be undue delays in payments now,” he said.
Mr. Karthigaivasan pointed out that the State government issued a communication recently pointing out that there were reports of inordinate delay in payment of dues to the MSMEs from government departments and organisations too. All departments and public sector undertakings were asked to make payments for goods and services from MSMEs within 45 days.
