VASCO
The Goa State Industries Association (GSAI) on Friday slammed the State government’s indifferent attitude and sought to know if manufacturing industries were being pushed out of the State.
The GSAI also questioned the delay of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in convening a meeting with stakeholders to discuss on improving Ease of Doing Business (EDB) in Goa.
“It was not surprising at all to see Goa slipping to the 24th place in the recent EoDB ranking. The CM had announced that once he comes out of home isolation, he would convene a meeting with the stakeholders on September 18 or 19 on ways to improve EoDB,” stated GSIA president Damodar Kochkar in a press release.
“But like all other political assurances, this meeting also seems to have been forgotten. The CM did call me on September 16, but there has been no further action from his side. It looks like industry matter is at the bottom of his priority list.”
“At present, the industry is struggling to survive in this pandemic situation. The market is down, there is a shortage of manpower and raw materials. Payments are not coming in time. In the midst of all this, employees are getting infected by Covid and there is a loss of working man hours,” said Kochkar.
He said the situation had become difficult for Goan MSMEs to manufacture products, pay salaries, bank premiums and interests.
