Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation industries to shut down on Friday

The industrial fraternity in the Pimpri-Chinchwad area has declared a one-day strike on Friday to oppose the hike in octroi announced by the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) on industrial equipment, spare parts and vehicles.

Suresh Mehtre, president of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Small Industries Association, said owners of industrial units opposed the 2% octroi hike. The industry association had formed an Industrial federation to oppose the octroi hike.

The federation members said that they had planned to shut down industries in March, but the PCMC mayor had promised to sort out the matter; but nothing had happened so far.

According to Mehtre, the PCMC had not taken the industries into  confidence and had proposed a hike in octroi. “This will hamper the growth of the auto component industries. We have decided to shut down all industries on Friday to oppose the proposed hike. 

We will not allow the PCMC to hike the octroi rates,”  Mehtre said.
He said that despite mopping up 70% of its revenue through octroi, the PCMC had done precious little to promote industrial growth. “Industries are yet to completely recover from the recession. It is unjust to hike octroi,” he added.