ASSOCHAM urges govt for relief to SMEs

Hyderabad, Nov 17 (INN): Assuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India Inc's full support in the fight against black money and corruption, the industry body ASSOCHAM today said though the short ' term hardship would lead to long-term cleaning up of the economy, some immediate relief should be considered for the industry, SMEs and the trade.

The ASSOCHAM reiterated the full industry commitment to join the Prime Minister in his determined fight against black money and corruption and several initiatives in the past with regard to income disclosures and foreign money have all been received well by all the right thinking people.

Suggesting a number of relief measures to deal with the current situation, the ASSOCHAM said the Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) should also be allowed to accept old notes till December 31, subject to certain safeguards like crediting the amount only to the borrowers' accounts and strict adherence to the money laundering laws.

It said the weekly limit of Rs 50,000 per week from the current account is too meagre. Besides, banks are not clear about it as yet and several of them are not implementing the current account limit. The small and medium enterprises, which employ casual labour on a big scale should be provided a special dispensation.

'A limit can be fixed according to size of the sales turnover of a company and depending on the sectors,' the ASSOCHAM said.

Even though India Inc itself operates in the organised sector of the economy which is connected electronically or through banking transactions like cheque payments, it has strong linkages with a large part of the unorganised sectors including agriculture, casual labour, transportation and other services.

Likewise, for the entire distribution chain for the items of mass consumption, the value chain from the retail to the large distributors is not totally cheque or electronically payment driven.

'The government may consider extending the same facilities as are being given to state-owned petrol pumps and cooperative stores for temporary trade in Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, subject a ceiling of Rs 5,000 per customer who will leave a proper ID with the retailers. Besides, the traders can also be asked to maintain strict stock details with fool proof system against back-dated transactions and other misuses. Considering the limitations of the Income Tax Departments, the staff of the state governments and other Central departments can be deployed with a provision of strict penalties on any misuse,' the chamber said.

It said, the chamber has also received queries from its members regarding exchange of currency by NRIs. 'Can they exchange notes from the branches of Indian banks branches operating overseas as well as from the other international banks.'

The ASSOCHAM reiterated full industry commitment to join the Prime Minister in his determined fight against black money and corruption and several initiatives in the past with regard to income disclosures and foreign money have all been received well by all the right thinking people.