Mysuru: Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) President-Elect Sudhakar S. Shetty led a 30-member delegation to meet Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy at Vidhana Soudha on June 2 and had a 30-minute discussion on issues related to the industry.

Some of the main issues discussed were: Abolition of Trade Licence, Separate tariff for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Development of North Karnataka, Problems related to Energy, Issues related to APMC (Agriculture Produce Market Committee), Tourism, Revenue and Demand for a separate Ministry for Trade.

Speaking to Star of Mysore, Sudhakar Shetty said that the Chief Minister was all ears listening to each and every issue and taking down notes after the memorandum was presented.

The first point raised with relation to industry was the abolition of trade licence for which FKCCI reiterates its demand for total abolition of trade licence for all business sectors. “The renewal of trade licence every year leads to harassment and our demand is to see that just like APMC renews it every ten years the same policy must be adopted here,” he said.

Women Entrepreneurs

Since the government wants to encourage women entrepreneurs, in the last Budget the Government had allocated Rs.200 crore for women entrepreneurs to avail loan from KSFC (Karnataka State Finance Corporation) at 4 per cent interest limiting to Rs. 2 crore per person. This allocation is insufficient. There is a need to allocate more funds which will enable more number of women entrepreneurs to establish industrial units in the State, he said.  

Minimum wages

When it comes to labour and employment, minimum wages for workmen should be fixed, revised, in comparison with the neighbouring States.  The revision of wages should not exceed 15 per cent to 20 per cent of the current wages paid. At present, the Department of Labour has revised minimum wages in most of the sectors providing steep increase from almost 50 per cent to 125 per cent which the industries cannot afford, especially MSMEs.  MSMEs have to be considered separately in fixing minimum wages and should not be brought in parity with large industries, he said.

Energy

On the issue of Energy, Shetty said that there is a need to regulate the supply of energy to IP sets numbering around 25.55 lakhs, which consumes about 19,503 million Units amounting to 33 per cent of energy supplied. The Government of Karnataka is subsidising this supply close to Rs.9,800 crore through budgetary support.

Separate Ministry for Trade

There is no separate Ministry which can be represented by the traders as in the case of industry wherein there is separate Ministry. Hence, it is very important to have a separate Ministry for Trade with independent charge to represent some of the issues affecting trade like bank charges, FDI, E-commerce or APMC.

Tourism

He said that Bengaluru should be made a hub of tourism for which land has to be allotted and developed by Tourism Department. Asked about the way forward for tourism in Mysuru, Shetty said, “One of the main demands to promote tourism in Mysuru is the setting up of an International Convention Hall. In fact this proposal was even given to Union Minister of State for Tourism K.J. Alphons when he was in Mysuru recently. Once we have this type of hall, then we can attract big conventions and this will give a fillip to tourism.” Issues relating to the airport expansion will also be raised with the Union Civil Aviation Minister in the future, he added.

He said that a joint meeting will be held with FKCCI after the Ministry formation and he (Shetty) takes over as President on June 30.

Chief Secretary K. Rathna Prabha, Additional Chief Secretary M. Lakshminarayana and others were present at the meeting.