Government notification will add confidence, says India Inc

A notification or announcement that employers will not be held responsible for Covid-19 positive cases will add confidence, Indian industry representatives have told the government and have pointed out the obstacles that need to be removed for restarting economic activity. “Criminal liability of employers in case of finding Covid-positive cases among employees has been mentioned by many industry members across states and needs to be clarified. We have seen the clarification from MHA yesterday,” representatives of CII told home secretary Ajay Bhalla and Gururprasad Mahapatra, secretary, department for promotion of industry and internal trade.

Industry representatives said that within red zones, there should be a clear demarcation of hotspots or containment zones as defined by the home ministry and economic activities outside of containment zones may be permitted. The containment zones can be reassessed on a daily basis, it said. From Monday, the government allowed restarting economic activity in limited sectors and with abundant safeguards but there are several hurdles which have emerged for smooth functioning of plants and manufacturing units.Industry representatives said no further permission should be required for essential goods facilities from state or district administrations for operations. Information by factories to district administrations should be considered sufficient to operate.

They said it was often not possible for workers to stay at the premises, especially for smaller plants. “Workers should be permitted to stay within 10 km and use their own transport. Most states have requested for movement of two-wheelers for workers. MSMEs are not able to afford the requirement of more buses due to social distancing needs,” industry representative said. Factories that are permitted to open should be allowed to issue passes or letters of authorisation for such staff rather than local authorities issuing passes. Telangana has allowed this on the basis of a CII representation, they said. For larger plants, it may not be feasible to shut down the entire unit on detection of a Covid-positive employee in one part of the plant. CII has outlined a protocol for segregation which may be considered. Similarly, the requirement of one-hour gap between shifts was not possible in continuous process plants where staggered change of shifts may be allowed.

CII has also forecast that GDP growth is estimated to be between -0.9% and 1.5% in 2020-21 and urged the government to unveil immediate measures to revive the economy and save vulnerable sectors. Another industry lobby group, Ficci has said all tax payments including GST should be deferred by six months without inviting any penalty. It said there was a need to provide greater regulatory forbearance including change in NPA definition and loan restructuring. “NPA recognition period to be extended from 90 days to a minimum of 360 days,” Ficci said in its recommendations to the Centre.