CHENNAI: Even four months after the State government allowed industrial estates in Chennai to resume work, most of them are operating with 40-50 per cent of their production capacity.
The 17 industrial estates in Chennai and several MSMEs are struggling with a plethora of problems like lack of working capital, shortage of labour, pending dues and paucity of orders.
And now, as the six month moratorium period has ended, their woes have increased.
“Things are in a very bad shape for the MSME sector. Migrant labourers who went back to their homes are yet to return and somehow we are running the show with local workers, but even they are not able to turn up regularly due to lack of proper public transport facility. We are not able to work on the orders at hand due to shortage of labour and lack of working capital,” said TN Small and Tiny Industries Association (TANSTIA), president, S Anburajan. TANSTIA has appealed to the Centre and State to lend a helping hand to the MSMEs sector.
The units located in the industrial estate have claimed that though their production capacity remains low, their expenses are still the same as they have to take care of maintenance of equipment, electricity bill and other sanitation measures.
“We are spending every day in fear and uncertainty. If any one tests positive, our production will go for a toss as we have to sanitise the premises. Adding to it, cash flow has completely dried up and the banks are also not cooperating with us,” said S Senthil, owner of an auto part manufacturer unit in Ambattur industrial estate.
VK Girish Pandian, president of National Confederation of Small Industry, said the MSMEs are facing a huge challenge with the six-month moratorium ending in August.
“The accumulated interest of the moratorium period is converted into a fresh term loan and we have to repay it by March 2021. Leave alone loan repayment, we don’t even have money to manage our expenses. It will take at least another 6 to 12 months to restore normalcy in the MSME sector.”