City industrialists present memorandum to Moily

Mysuru:  Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance Chairman M. Veerappa Moily assured the industrialists in the district that their problems will be brought to the notice of the Central Government.

He was addressing the media after receiving the memorandum from Confederation of India Industry (CII), Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI), Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA), Mysore Industries Association (MIA), Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Karnataka (AWAKE), Mysore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) and a few others.

He said that the issues involving the industries will be discussed in the meeting and a report presented to the Centre. GST (Goods and Service Tax) is basically a good idea for the country. But there are allegations that since it has not been implemented properly, there are problems. It is said that hundreds of small scale industrialists are suffering and it has become a big burden for tax payers. The Committee will discuss about all this, he added.

Karnataka CII State Council Chairman N. Muthukmar, speaking after presenting the memorandum to Veerappa Moily, said that in the current economic scenario since the bankers are not supporting the small-scale industries, the entrepreneurs are left with no other option but to get loan from private players with high cost of interest.

Schemes like MUDRA, loans for new entrepreneurs and capital based loans are all only on paper. The fact is that the industrialists are forced to go from bank to bank to get loans. To stop this type of harassment, the application must be made online. The GST must be simplified. The tax on a few of the raw materials has gone up and it has to be brought down. Likewise, there is confusion in taxes on finished products and even this should be set right, he urged. He called for the banks to make concrete effort to increase the quantum of lending to the MSME (Micro Small Medium Enterprises) sector.

GST on job works were earlier exempted from payment of tax under the VAT. However, with the introduction of GST, job works is taxed at 18%, which is causing a lot of hardship to the micro and small units who are the main players performing the service for larger units. Hence, job works must be brought under 5% GST or completely exempted, he said and added that it is only if the small scale industries survive will the nation progress. The memorandum also suggested doing away with Casual Registration under GST and urged that in addition to One-Nation-One-Tax there also ought to be one registration system, for enabling ease of doing business.

It also called for financial institutions doing away referring to CIBIL score for financial assistance, said Muthukumar. MCCI President Jayasimha, CII Member Shabarish, Small Scale Industries Association Secretary Manjunath, Mysore Industries Association Secretary Suresh Jain and others were present.