The Confederation of SIDCO Industrial Associations, Chennai region, has alleged that the grant of permission for limited resumption of industrial activities in and around the region has been done in an inequitable way.

MSME industrial estate associations have pointed out that only select areas have been permitted to resume operations from May 7, while units in industrial estates in the outskirts of Chennai have not been given permission to open, citing increased instances of Covid-19 infections.

“When the government permits large companies like Hyundai, Ashok Leyland and Nissan Renault to resume operations, while denying permissions to tier II III units in the industrial estates in Ambattur, Thirumazhisai, Thirumudivakkam, Thirumullaivoyal, Kakkalur, Guindy, Perungudi and Villivakkam, it creates anxiety in the minds of these entrepreneurs who look to resume operations at the earliest, given their losses in the past two months,” said AN Sujeesh, President, Ambattur Industrial Estate Manufacturers’ Association.

A delayed resumption of operations will have a negative impact on the MSME clusters in this part of Tamil Nadu. Also, it will create challenges for companies in the disbursement of salaries for April.

“With OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) gearing up to resume operations, there are real possibilities of orders placed with us to be given out to units in other functional clusters. This will lead to loss of orders and difficulty in retaining existing clients,” Sujeesh said.

The labour workforce housed in the estate units have been waiting to restart work. Therefore, an ill-advised extension of this lockdown period could lead to unnecessary problems, he added.

The Confederation of SIDCO Industrial Associations, Chennai region, which accounts for a turnover of ₹26,250 crore, has requested the State government to allow MSMEs within industrial estates to operate with 50 per cent labour and implementing the minimum stipulated SOPs (standard operating procedures) with reference to the access control measures as laid down by the Centre.

GST collection

The Associations felt that the government’s support in restarting operations in industrial estates will also help improve GST collections, which has hit an all-time low due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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