Cong demands govt to bear 70 per cent of MSMEs' wage bill

New Delhi, Mar 31 (KNN) Amid crippled situation during lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic, the Congress has demanded that the Central government should bear 70 per cent of wage bill of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) for three months.

The party, also sought a law to make sure that there will be no retrenchment in any sector or company for the next six months.

''Bearing 70 per cent of the wage bill of the MSME sector for three months will entail an expenditure of about Rs 1 lakh crore. The Central government should bear 70 per cent of salary and wage bill of MSME for three months from March to May 2020," Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said in a statement on Monday.

Vallabh further said that the contribution of MSME sector to GDP is 29 per cent, which is about Rs 61 lakh crore adding that ''assuming the wage bill of MSME to be 10 per cent of turnover, we can consider Rs 6.1 lakh crore as the wage bill.''

''For one month, it would be around Rs 50,000 crore and for three months around Rs 1.50 lakh crore. Seventy per cent of the same works out to approximately Rs 1 lakh crore and assuming that about 45 crore are employed (in the sector), it works out to only Rs.2,200 per person employed," he said.

Terming truck drivers as the backbone of the economy, the Congress spokesperson also suggested that truck drivers should be given advance payment through direct benefit transfer to ensure that the supply of essentials were not affected. There are approximately 30 lakh truck drivers and the burden will be around Rs 25,000 crore."