COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (CODISSIA) has urged the Central government to come out with immediate measures to protect small industries from the impact of slowdown in engineering and automobile sector.
In a representation to the Union Finance minister, Dr Nirmala Sitharaman, the industry body president, R Ramamurthy, said, “due to the present economic slowdown, there is a sudden drop in production by 30 per cent in general engineering sector and 50 per cent to 60 per cent in the automobile sector. The MSMEs have been severely affected as they are directly dependent on large and medium scale industries. Due to lack of orders, MSMEs are facing heavy cash and fund flow shortages and inventory level is also increasing day by day. The MSMEs are unable to pay the bank dues and have requested the banks to give a moratorium for a year.”
He also requested the Central government to create the environment to stimulate the demand which will result in buying products by the consumers. “Infusion and availability of more funds from banks, Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) will help MSMEs to sustain at the present level. Industries are expecting booster measures including simplification of GST returns, collateral-free industrial loans up to Rs three crore, separate chapter for MSMEs in RBI monetary policy and also to reduce the GST for job orders from 18 per cent to five per cent,” the CODISSIA president said.
