Small industries seek moratorium for another year amid Covid crisis

The Coimbatore District Small Industrial Association (Codissia) on Monday requested the Centre for extending the moratorium period for another year for both term loan repayment and interest dues till June 30, 2022.

The industries have been under complete lockdown and have not been able to operate business for the last four weeks and the lockdown of all industries and commercial establishments has now been extended for further one week considering the high number of COVID-19 cases.

Codissia president M V Ramesh Babu said in identical letters to different Union Ministries: "We are not confident when we will be allowed to resume normal business operations. There has not been any support from banks/financial institutions."

"In spite of all the financial hurdles, considering that our employees have to meet their basic requirements, we have made due payment of wages/salaries for the month of May, 2021," he said in the letter.

"There have been no business operations for the entire period of four weeks ZERO collections from our customers and this has completely paralysed our working capital," he said.

Thanking Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for granting various stimulus packages to cover the financial impact on the MSME sector during the first wave of COVID-19, the representation said the second wave has been highly strenuous on the entire society.

The MSME industry has been affected and the members had taken the social responsibility towards the welfare of their employees and all people in their supply chain, he said.

The expenditure for the welfare of the employees and COVID treatment has been huge, he said.

Seeking to waive the late fees applicable on delayed filing of GSTR 1, Codissia also requested the Centre to extend the due dates without any condition as to the turnover or tax payable.

"Further, due to the complete lockdown, we are not allowed to travel even for submission of documents to banks. In this regard, banks have initiated charging penal charges/penal interest," he said.

Therefore, he added, the time limit for submission of stock/book debts statements, end-use certificates, renewal of bank limits shall be given a blanket extension of 90 days and there shall not be any levy of penal charges/penal interest on any account during the period April 2021 to July 2021.