The COVID-19 pandemic has seeped into our economic fabric and has started disrupting work, amidst this organised industrial units are paying salaries to their staff during the 21-day national curfew but have said they won’t be in any position to continue it further due to an already existing critical economic condition because of a slowdown existing in the economy.
They stated that the lockdown period as of now has spread across two months and they would be incurring a lot of losses in footing wage bills, paying rent, taxes, property tax, licence fee, property tax and other expenses.
They feel the government had only paid lip service and did not extend any meaningful package for the units.
A shawl manufacturing unit’s president, Priya Lal Seth of the Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal, said, “A majority of the industrial units in the state in general and in the border district, in particular, falls under the MSME sector. He turned down the government’s offer permitting to run only those units which had the capacity to offer boarding and lodging facilities.”
He said it was not practically feasible as only a partial number of employees would join the units and the remaining would not attend. Those attending would seek more wages in comparison to others.
