Budget wish list: Staffing firms call for simplified procedures

“We need just one licence to operate staffing business and just one return per licence; simplified documentation,” said Rituparna Chakraborty, President, Indian Staffing Federation, on the budget expectations of the recruitment industry.

Granting state or nationwide licence should be based on nationwide presence, registration under Companies Act and social security registrations. Licensing will also make it possible for the corporates to work with regulated staffing companies, reducing the administrative hassles, she said.

Cumbersome process

Ravi Vishwanathan, Chief Financial Officer, Team Lease Ltd, a listed recruitment company, said companies currently have over 25 different registrations to grapple with.

The process of application, issuance and renewal of these numbers breeds inefficiency, corruption and waste.

The proposal to adopt the PAN number as universal enterprise number across all central government agencies has been stuck because of demand for an establishment number, he said.

Various central and state labour laws require enterprises to use paper to the equivalent of about six lakh trees, he added.

Low-wage employees are subject to labour laws that require a mandatory 45 per cent payroll decuction from their cost-to-company while high-wage employees are only subject to a 9 per cent deduction. Benefits are important but salary belongs to employees, who should be allowed to decide for themselves whether they want to make their employee contribution to Provident Fund; to Provident Fund Authority of the New Pension Scheme or pay health insurance premiums to ESI Corporation or buy private health insurance, Vishwanathan said.

According to Amitabh Jaipuria, President & CEO, Global Services, Quess Corp Ltd, a listed recruitment company, given that over 10 million youth join the workforce every year, skill building and job creation should be the primary focus for this government.

“We expect that significant incentives and steps to encourage companies to accelerate their pace of hiring will form important aspects of this budget,” he said.