New Delhi (NVI): All India Manufacturers Organisation (AIMO) today lauded the Government’s 21-day lockdown to tackle the COVID-19 crisis but at the same time also expressed concerns over the hardships being faced by the MSME sector due to the situation.
AIMO, an apex trade body, has urged the Government to provide support packages and incentives to the MSME sector so that it can bear the impact of coronavirus amid the lockdown.
While endorsing the lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the trade body also called for the government’s attention to take necessary measures and help the MSME sector.
Shrikant Dalmia, Zonal Vice President West (AIMO) said, “We would like to acknowledge the steps taking by the Finance Minister regarding the easing of Compliance which was taken to ease the business situation.”
“Several sectors like Automobile, Aviation, Hospitality, Apparel, Consumer Durables, Electronics, Hotels, Tourism, Restaurants And Bars, The Entertainment Industry, Airlines, BPO, Seafood and Livestock, Construction And Real Estate, Transportation are among the worst hit by this epidemic,” he said.
Dalmia added that all the MSME’s/Self Employed Individuals/Entrepreneurs associated or whose revenues depend either directly or indirectly on these sectors “have been on the verge of a Shutdown situation.”
Sushil Vyas, Secretary, AIMO said, “According to our reports from our members and State Boards and their clusters of the MSME sector over the past few weeks across the country, over 60 odd million MSME’s are in real danger due to market issues with over 92% drop in domestic sales compared to same time last year and over 100% drop in export sales compared to same time last year.”
“Apart from the manufacturers, our services industry players in tourism, hotel, retail and entertainment have suffered major impact. Contrary to popular opinion, even our online startups have seen a huge decline in demand except from the healthcare start ups and some even have an unsold inventory increase of about 58% currently. MSMEs re feeling the Impact of Inter-State restrictions on transportation of goods and impact of Import restrictions from China has hit many of our Entrepreneurs as a source of raw material,” he added.
Dalmia further said that Work from Home (WFH) is applicable to less than 8% of the core MSME and services sector. He said that WFH has seen a drop in over 63% productivity in the service industry. The Services sector has seen mass migration of Labour to their villages, he said.
