Ahmedabad
Small businesses complain that they remain busy in complying and are unable to focus on business
Updated : Jun 21, 2019, 06:25 AM IST
Representatives of small businesses raised issues related to disproportionate responses by government authorities for petty reasons, delay in payments by big buyers, delay in payment of incentives by government, ad hoc circulars resulting in blanket action against exporters, lack of road map in implementation of policies by the government and others that affect their day-to-day functioning. They said this during a seminar on Ease of Doing Business (EODB) in the city on Thursday.
Sunil Parekh, co-chair of Gujarat State Council of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) expressed the necessity for further easing in obtaining land and construction permits as well as a single agency to inspect compliance of GST, PF, ESIC, Factory Act and Labour Act.
Rajkumar Beniwal, MD of Industrial Extension Bureau (iNDEXTB) asked businessmen to use Investor Facilitation Portal (IFP) through which close to 70 permissions pertaining to various departments are available. "First we are focussing on Ease of Starting Business. We are also focussing on Ease of Doing Business," he told DNA.
Arun Kumar Jagatramka, group chairman of Gujarat NRE led the assault, warning government officials that if practises of the government continue to be unfair, no young entrepreneur will remain in the country. "Excessive criminalization of corporate laws has created an environment of witch hunting where no businessman feels himself safe and is leading to mass exodus of future entrepreneurs out of the country," said Jagatramka.
Khalid Khan, regional chairman – western region of Federation of Indian Exporters Organization (FIEO) said that a recent circular by Customs Department resulted in close to 600 containers coming to a grinding halt at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT). Most of these belonged to commodity exporters from Gujarat. "It is unfair to take everyone to task, if a few businesses do not comply," said Khan.