Bizmen unhappy over notices to renew MSME registration

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 25

Industrialists are irked at the Punjab State Industry Export Corporation (PSIEC) after it issued notices to MSME-unit owners to renew their MSME registration certificates.

Sukhdev Singh, an industrialist, said he had been running an industrial unit in the Focal point area for the past around 25 years. He was for a surprise, when he received a notice to submit a certificate to validate that the unit was operational. He said his firm was paying all kinds of taxes, electricity bills and other fees to the government and its various departments.

Moreover, the certificate was submitted after a new industry establishment to intimate the government that the subsidised land allotted to it was being used for the stated purpose, he said. The industrialists stated that an SDO-rank official of the Department of Industries and Commerce carried out a study on the number of operational units in the industrial areas of the city about two years ago.

Kamal Dalmia said like many other industrial houses, his firm Natraj Wooltex Ltd procured a 3,274 square yard plot in the New Focal Point on the Mehta road in 2014, at a cost of Rs4,000 per square yard. He said three-ft deep water on the plot and the adjoining area exposed the tall claims of the PSIEC to provide best facilities to the businessmen. He said the government should first provide basic amenities, instead of issuing notices to industrialists to forfeit their plots for non-construction.

Kamal stated that the adverse market condition created after demonetisation and implementation of the GST caused a liquidity crisis in the market. So, industrialists were finding it tough to operate their units.