Bombay Chamber To Stay With Assocham

Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI) is learnt to have given up its plan of pulling out of Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry as a promoter chamber. The chamber had earlier this year written to the Assocham secretariat expressing its desire to pull out as a promoter chamber and continue just as an ordinary member.

BCCI is among the five regional promoters of Assocham with powers to nominate its president.

Top functionaries of Assocham say hectic parleys between BCCI officials and Assocham president L Lakshman have made the Mumbai industry body reconsider its decision.

Lakshman confirms that a series of meetings have taken place between the two entities in the last couple of months on how Assocham could enhance the value imparted to its promoter chambers.

 

"There has been a serious reconsideration of the move by BCCI. I hope to obtain a positive solution to the issue before I lay down office, which is due in six-eight weeks," Lakshman told Business Standard. He however did not confirm that BCCI had changed its mind, while BCCI officials were not available for comment. To provide more value to the promoter chambers, Assocham has decided to set up a co-ordinating structure that provides for frequent meetings and a daily communication pattern with a single contact point in New Delhi. The single contact point will be managed by a middle-level functionary of the chamber. "The contact point in New Delhi will function like a clearing house of information," Lakshman said, adding that the primary reason offered by BCCI for its move was that Assocham was not imparting enough value to its promoters.

According to him, the promoter chambers are also looking for more well-researched studies on vital topics. However, industry sources say BCCI wanted to pull out since it had been sore over the growing influence of family-owned businesses, particularly L M Thapar (Ballarpur Industries) and Hari Shankar Singhania (JK Corp), as opposed toprofessional managers.

Sources say BCCI's chief intention was to quit Assocham altogether, but it had to continue as an ordinary chamber for the time being since Assocham's constitution does not have a provision for the resignation of a promoter chamber. The immediate implication of BCCI becoming an ordinary chamber would have been that it would lose its right to nominate the alternate-president, who ultimately becomes president, and pay a maximum membership fee of just Rs 7,500 per annum, against the Rs 2.5 lakh paid by a promoter chamber.

Incidentally, many illustrious past presidents of Assocham, such as former Hindustan Lever chairman S M Datta and Nocil managing director N M Dhuldhoya, both professional managers, were nominees of BCCI..