TIRUCHI
The Tamil Nadu Boilers Association (TNBA) has urged the Union government to expedite steps to rehabilitate the sick medium and small-scale engineering industries in Tiruchi.
In representations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Rajappa Rajkumar, Treasurer, TNBA, and president the BHEL Small Industries Association (BHELSIA,) drew the attention of the government to the critical situation faced by the industry, especially the units which have been declared as NPAs.
Even though a direction has been given to the banks to implement a rehabilitation programme, there has been little progress. Steps has been taken by Secretary- Finance through which the legal process and auctioning of the units was stopped temporarily. But the 52 NPA units, promoters and workers are struggling without livelihood. A few promoters have died already and nearly 10,000 workers and their families are under severe stress. Their situation would turn worse if an expeditious solution was not arrived at to sustain their livelihood quickly. The promoters had served the society, met all statutory obligations and given employment to people for the past four to five decades.
“The sickness (of the units) is due to the change in government policies and the general recession. While the government is promoting new MSME Units with lot of special subsidy schemes, no steps have been taken for the revival of sick units,” he regretted.
Mr.Rajkumar also felt that auctioning the units declared as NPAs would only result in a criminal waste of the assets, capability and capacity created after several years of hard work.
In the representation to the Finance Minister, Mr.Rajkumar said that due to general recession and delay or non-collection of payments from customers, the MSME units were not able to meet out their GST and Provident Fund commitments. “This leads to cancellation of GST registration and levy of huge penalties for delayed payment of both GST and PF. In some cases even warrants were issued. If this is not stopped the rehabilitation package of banks may not be implemented and the units will become permanently sick,” he observed.
In view of the situation, he urged the Finance Minister to allow the units to pay their arrears in GST and Provident Fund contributions in equal instalments over a period of 12 to 24 months. The GST registration should not be cancelled for the units concerned. No penalty or interest should be levied as that would be become a heavy burden on the struggling MSME sector, he suggested.
Mr.Rajkumar sought an audience with both the Prime Minister and Finance Minister for a delegation to brief them on the critical situation faced by the MSME units from Tiruchi and put forth a viable solution.
