MADURAI: The Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry has today welcomed the two tranches of packages announced in detail by Union Finance Minister Mrs.Nirmala Sitharaman as a follow up to the big announcement of Rs.20 lakh crore economic revival package.
“We want the banks to grant loans speedily because the success of loan scheme depends on the swiftness of banks. But overall, the chamber applauds the Union Finance Minister’s proactive and efficacious schemes announced in the last two days,” Mr.N.Jegatheesan, chamber president and Mr.S.Rethinavelu, senior president, have said in a press statement here on 15th May 2020.
In her first tranche, she spoke about path-breaking liquidity support for various sectors with special focus on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which are the backbone of our economy providing employment to 11 crore people. The announcement of Rs.3 lakh crore for collateral free automatic loans to the extent of 20% of their existing loan for businesses, including MSMEs, will solve to a great extent the problem of liquidity crunch of this sector to make their units operative after this long lockdown, the Tamil Nadu Chamber had pointed out.
It also hailed the bold and revolutionary step that global
tenders would be disallowed in government procurement tenders upto Rs.200 crores because it is a blessing for domestic companies facing unfair external competition. “However the real success of the loan scheme depends on the swiftness of the banks in granting loans to the needy with lesser interest,” Mr.Jegatheesan and Mr.Rethinavelu have said.
MIGRANT WORKERS:
In her second tranche, the Union Finance Minister has
focused on migrant workers, hitherto unnoticed and neglected by the government. It is astonishing to note that there are eight crore migrant workers in our country.
“The government should realize the impact of the exodus of these workers at one stroke from industrialized States like Tamil Nadu to their native States, which cannot be stopped. Most of the industries and service sectors would not be able to restart after lockdown without migrant workers. States like Bihar, Odisha, Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh may not be in a position to provide employment to all the returned workers from other States,” the Chamber had pointed out.
The Chamber had suggested similar to running trains for migrant workers to return to their home states, trains and buses should be arranged from these States, for the aspiring workers, to travel to other States like Tamil Nadu. “Both onward and return train facilities should be simultaneous
to avoid continued lockdown. We request both the Central and State Government to consider our above suggestion and take necessary actions immediately,” they said in the press release.
