SRINAGAR: The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday held a meeting with stakeholders belonging to the Industrial Sector.

KCCI  Interacts With Industries Stakeholders

The spokesman in a statement said that the meeting was presided over by Nasir Hamid Khan, Senior Vice President, KCC&I.

“During the meeting, the representatives deliberated upon the various problems faced by the industrial sector,” said the spokesman.

The spokesman said that Members stated that the local industrial sector was witnessing it’s worst period because of the withdrawal of support by the Government. The lack of budgetary assistance and abolition of Toll Tax without announcement of any substituting protective mechanism had severely impacted the local industry of Kashmir.

He said that members complained that non-adherence to the industrial policy providing for price preference to local units, delayed reimbursements of CGST and SGST.

“Members stated that major changes in government policies like the implementation of GST had resulted in aggravating the stress on the local industries and caused severe capital contraction. The financial institutions have not so far provided the needed support to help the industries tide over this crisis,” he said.

“Due to major accounts being under stress, borrowers are prevented from availing benefits of schemes including the new 20 Lakh Crore package announced by the Central Government as their stressed accounts debar them from qualifying for the guidelines,” said the spokesman.

Members, he said, raised the issues of disparities in the disbursal of reimbursement to vide SROs 63, 519, and 521. They stated that the incentives tended to be more in favor of new units while the existing units were left in the lurch.

“They urged the KCCI to ensure that the incentives and reimbursements needed to be uniform so that all local industries have a level competitive field. They suggested that interventions like providing of Working Capital at concessional interest rates, waiver of interest for the period of lockdown, rescheduling repayment plans, lowering of Power Tariff and waiver of demand charges, reduction of SIDCO/SICOP rental charges, were required to provide breathing space to the local industries,” he said.

Members pointed out that SIDCO, SFC, and DFC needs to be reinvigorated to provide the necessary support to the local industries. The absence of fully functional offices of important institutions like the SIDBI and NABARD in Kashmir was a cause of concern.

“Members dealing in the food processing industry stated that the absence of a common Testing Laboratory was creating difficulties in their sector. They stated that price fixation policy by the government in Jammu and Kashmir had deprived the public of the premium quality products. They stated that the policy had prevented open competition which would have ultimately benefited the consumers through improved quality products,” he said.

The spokesman noted that the stakeholders were unanimous about the failure of the single window system and the concept of ease of doing business.  “Prolonged gestation period in getting various clearances result in loss of the critical time which deprives units from availing the benefits of industrial policies,” he said.

On behalf of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Senior Vice President Nasir Hamid Khan and Secretary General Farooq Amin briefed the members about the various activities undertaken by the KCC&I for the local industries.

“The members were assured that the grievances and issues raised by them would be effectively put up with the concerned authorities,” said the spokesman.

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