The Mangaluru council of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has urged the Government to consider reliefs to MSME (micro, small and medium enterprise) sector in case it decides to lock-down industries for a long time.

K Prakash Rao, Chairman of the Mangaluru council of CII, said that all tax and statutory due payments should be deferred by 30-45 days and no penal provisions be invoked for delayed payments.

He said the banks should provide moratorium period for repayment of loans and other forms of debts for six months, without impacting the credit rating. Norms for declaring NPA period in banks should be extended to 180 days.

He said most industries are facing force majeure issues for the contracts executed for supplies. Every MSME is stuck with huge inventories and big time value erosion of these commodities. In such a situation, the MSMEs need bank assistance by way of soft loan to tide over this situation.

He said minimum charges in the electricity bills should be suspended for the period.

Stating that ESI Corporation has brought out notification extending cover to Covid-19 victims, he said this cover is to those employees who are infected and requiring treatment.

Wages for quarantine period

“We will need the ESI to cover the wage (at least 50 per cent) for employees under quarantine, too. Many of the employees have their relatives in the UAE and would have returned home now. They are required to be under self-quarante under these circumstances. However, if they are not compensated, they will not do this. We must strongly recommend to the Government that ESI must provide compensation for wages for quarantining period also,” he added.

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