Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 13: Federation of Industries Jammu today appealed to Lt Governor, G C Murmu to consider its request for the deferment of purchases through GeM Portal till the end of current financial year, keeping in mind the prevailing situation in J&K due to COVID-19, which has resulted closure of majority of the Micro & Small Scale Units, except a few units engaged in the manufacturing of essential commodities.
The Federation explained that after the abrogation of 370, the Micro and Small Scale Sector has suffered very badly in view of the directions by the Finance Department by the virtue of which it is mandatory for all the Govt Departments to purchase the goods only through GeM Portal of branded products thus resulting into sharp decline in the sale of thousands of Micro & Small Scale Units in J&K, being run by the sons of the soil.
The MSEs were working to earn their bread and butter mostly from the supplies made to Govt departments with the State Govt support as per the Industrial Policy by providing them 20 percent price preference but due to abolishing of Toll Post at all the entry points of J&K resulting the suppliers from outside the UT, we fear that in future majority of the Micro & Small Scale Units may close down due to stiff competition from outside the J&K for the purchases through GeM Portal by Govt Departments thus resulting into mass scale retrenchment of local workers in the units,” elaborated Lalit Mahajan, Chairman of FoIJ.
Therefore, he added, “we humbly request the Lt Governor to kindly defer the order till March 31, 2021, issued by the Finance‘Department for the purchase through GeM Portal keeping in mind the current situation and constitute a high level committee to examine the whole issue to protect the local MSE’s.”
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