Jammu MSMEs meet All Party Delegation led by Rajnath Singh over burgeoning loss due to unrest

Jammu, Sep 6 (KNN) The Jammu MSMEs have submitted a memorandum to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who led the all-party delegation to Jammu and Kashmir, in which they highlighted several issues relate to impact of Kashmir unrest, central incentives, increasing NPAs, poor infrastructure etc.

The memorandum was submitted by Federation of Industries Jammu (FOIJ) to Singh in the presence of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, MoS Prime Minister Office Dr. Jitendra Singh and other Members of Parliament of both the Houses.

A delegation of FOIJ led by its Chairman Lalit Mahajan, pointed that the industrialization process in the entire state has always been at low due to militancy.

Continuous unrest and shut downs in Kashmir Valle has further aggravated the situation in the last two months resulting into losses of hundreds of crores rupees of the industrial sector, said Mahajan.

He said the working condition of the industrial units is massively suffering as the unit holders are not in a position to pay wages/ salaries to their staff and workers and all other fixed expenses like Power Bills, Bank Interest on Term Loans as well as Working Capital Limits availed from the Banks.

FOIJ chief said that the situation is very serious as there has been no cash flow for the last two months which has led to non-payment of interest rates and installments to the banks resulting into more and more units turning non-performing assets (NPAs).

Raising concerns over migration of youth from Jammu due to non-availability of jobs, Mahajan said, “It is worthwhile to mention here that due to uncertainty and non-availability of jobs in the state most of the young population opt for working outside the state and we fear that in the coming years the Jammu will be turn out to be a Senior Citizen Colonies if corrective measures are not adopted by the Central and State Government for the establishment of Industrial Sector in the State by providing Fiscal Benefits.”

The entrepreneurs urged the Government to come forward for the rescue of the MSMEs in the region.

Some of the requests made by FOIJ delegation include -All pending payments pertaining to Industrial Sector for the supply of goods to various Government Departments should be released immediately; to release the funds for the clearance of payments of Industrial Sector in respect of various sanctioned claims of Central Package of Incentives from DIPP pending since 01-04-2015 amounting to Rs. 60 Crores (approximate); Waiver of Bank Interest on the Working Capital and Term Loans form 01-07-2016 to 31-03-2017 with the concessional rate of Interest w.e.f 01-04-2017 for next one year and more.

Further, the entrepreneurs want the Government to come forward with long term measures to compensate losses suffered by industrial sector in the last eight years due to disturbed condition in the valley.

Meanwhile, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and all the members of the delegation gave a patient hearing and assured FOIJ to resolve the issues related to the industrial sector as early as possible for speedy industrial growth in the state. (KNN Bureau)