RSS-affiliate LUB concerned over state of economy, Bhagwat to inaugurate its silver-jubilee event

Amid increasing concerns over a slowdown in Indian economy, especially in automobile sector, RSS' industry wing -- Laghu Udyog Bharti (LUB) -- will be organising its three-day silver jubilee programme with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in attendance among others including Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.

LUB with networks in 450 districts across the country, feels that the current atmosphere in the country was not "conducive" for Micro, Small and Medium (MSME) sector and the issue will be discussed at length during three-day event at Nagpur beginning August 16.

"There are reports about the economic slowdown. It is due to the challenges being faced by automobile, textile, and real state sectors. These are serious concerns and need to be addressed. Due to lack of encouraging atmosphere people are running away from the manufacturing sector," said Jitendra Gupta, national president of LUB.

He said the implementation of GST has affected manufacturing sector "badly" and pushed it out of business while urging the Central government to adopt a holistic approach to address the concerns of the sector.

"We will discuss the major challenges being faced by the sector with special focus on making policies with a holistic approach. How a conducive atmosphere can be built and how entrepreneurship is developed will also be discussed," he said.

He said measures to create an atmosphere for self-employment and self-reliance needs to taken by the government. About 125 industrial associations from across the country will participate in the event.

Bhagwat will inaugurate the event while Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Santosh Gangwar and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis would attend its various sessions.

Amid concerns over the economy, Sitharaman has been meeting industry representatives across sectors -- banking, automobile, micro, small and medium enterprises, industry associations and real estate developers --since last few days.

Gupta said big industries benefitted from the GST while micro and small industries were most affected and continued to face issues.

"Industries are against 18 per cent tax on job-working engineering units. These industries had been seeking a reduction of GST to 5 per cent for job-working engineering MSMEs," he said.

The LUB also raised its apprehensions over the government's move on changing the criterion to classify micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), on the basis of turnover instead of the investment.

"In no way, this is going to benefit the sector. Measuring MSMEs mainly on the basis of turnover will open the gates for trading companies and would hamper local manufacturing," he said.