Owing to the relentless COVID-19-led fiscal backlash in Goa, the State Government has announced a swerve of reliefs to trade and industry stakeholders with a view to facilitate quick recovery from the pandemic
Considering the fact that the State is presently battling it out with the COVID-19 pandemic, causing severe economic tribulations, Chief Minister, Dr. Pramod Sawant addressed the media through a web conference wherein he announced a range of steps taken by the State including an affirmative nod to a 12-hour work shift for factories in order to cope with the shortage of labourers; followed by an extension of period for renewal of licenses and permits of all construction, town and country planning, excise, transport and other related activities. Elaborating upon his statement in relation to the 12-hour work shift, Dr. Sawant stated that this measure has been implemented with an objective to provide assistance to factories that have to deal with labour scarcity due to the current lockdown-led restrictions. The Chief Minister has also clarified that this confirmatory action has been allowed for the initial period up to 31st July 2020.
Dr. Sawant further spoke of the State’s participation and support towards the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ initiative, as a result of which, the State Government introduced a self certification scheme sustaining factories and boilers in Goa. “According to the guidelines of this scheme, the factories encompassed therein shall be inspected once every five years instead of annually, with prior intimation”, he said. In furtherance of the same, the State Government has also extended the validity of factory licenses for a further period of one year with deferment of payment of license fees without levying interest. As far as the Excise aspect is concerned, Dr. Sawant stated that the last date for renewal of excise related licenses has been extended from 31st March 2020 to 30th June 2020 without having to pay the required penalties. Additionally, the Chief Minister stated that all construction licenses and permits issued by the Panchayats and municipal bodies approaching expiry between 1st March 2020 and 30th June 2020 have been deemed to be extended up to 31st October 2020 without payment of supplementary fees.
Commenting upon the technical and development facet, Dr. Sawant said that all the technical clearances and development related permits which are due for expiry between the period of 1st March 2020 and 30th June 2020 have been deemed to be extended up to 31st October 2020, again without any payment of additional charges or fees. With regards to the annual installment payable towards land lease premium for the financial year 2020-21 to the GIDC, the Chief Minister mentioned that the same stands deferred and can be paid in an equated mode over a period of three years to follow. The validity of factory licenses has further been extended for a period of one year allowing deferment of payment of license fees without interest.
More importantly, Dr. Sawant also shed light upon how the current State Government strategizes to issue an ordinance to amend the Factories Act, 1948 wherein the existing threshold limit on the number of workers for the purpose of applicability of the Factories Act will be elevated from 10 workers to 20 workers for factories aided by power and from 20 workers to 40 workers for factories not aided by power, thereby expressing that about 160 odd factories are going to be vastly benefitted by this step taken by the State.
“A nod to the 12-hour shift is not really significant, since those currently doing 12 hour shifts; continue to do so, in any case. Those having work load could do it without these orders, by simply paying overtime. The problem most industry and trade stakeholders are facing is lack of work and work orders” SANJEEV TRIVEDI, MD, Infiniti Modules Pvt. Ltd.
Earlier, a similar ordinance was passed amending the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 in order to unwind the registration of establishments, contractors that employed 20 to 50 workers as contract laborers in the previous year.
Similarly, the State Government has also promulgated an ordinance amending the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. Commenting on this, Parag Joshi, former President, Goa State Industries Association says, “While the Goa Government’s initiative of promulgating an ordinance amending Industrial Disputes Act is welcome to the extent of relaxing requirement of obtaining prior permission for closure, retrenchment and lay off to all industrial establishments having up to 300 workmen instead of 100 workmen as it stood before the ordinance, is most welcome. The initiative of bringing in a time limit of 1 year for raising an industrial dispute is also welcome. However, the dilemma is that the amendment has revised the retrenchment and closure compensation from existing 15 days to 45 days!”
Joshi, further elucidated upon the downside of the said ordinance, stated that, those small industrial establishments employing more than 50 and up to 100 workmen, who were otherwise not required to take prior permission of the Government even under existing law as stood before promulgation of ordinance will now be required to pay revised compensation of 45 days wages per completed year of service, which may probably not be affordable. Secondly, many of those industrial establishments, employing over 100 but up to 300 workmen were otherwise negotiating a deal for paying compensation up to 30 days wages and entering into agreements with workmen and unions for VRS purposes to avoid taking prior permission for retrenchment or closure as per their capacity to pay. Although, these industrial establishments are now, not required to take permission for retrenchment or closure, they have to statutorily require paying compensation at 45 days wages, not withstanding whether it is affordable or otherwise.
Thirdly, the workmen and unions were earlier aware that they are statutorily entitled to compensation of 15 days wages and therefore keeping that as a base, they would demand reasonable compensation benefits. However, now the unions will keep the base rate of compensation at 45 days and start demanding extra compensation over and above the already statutorily hiked compensation, making it difficult for arriving at a settlement point easily. In their case, now it will be more difficult for them to opt for retrenchment or closure. Finally, although the State Government has made it easy to compound the offences under the Act, price to be paid for such compounding will be sky-scraping.
“The initiative of promulgating an ordinance amending Industrial Disputes Act is welcome to the extent of relaxing requirement of obtaining prior permission for closure, retrenchment and lay off to all industrial establishments having up to 300 workmen instead of 100 workmen, as it stood before the ordinance. So also, is the initiative of bringing in a time limit of 1 year for raising an industrial dispute. However, the dilemma is that, the amendment has revised the retrenchment and closure compensation from existing 15 days to 45 days” PARAG JOSHI, Former President, GSIA.
The extensive range of actions announced by the State also comprise of the One Time Settlement Scheme, covering all tax related legislations for the assessment period up to the year ending on 31st March 2016 in case of undisputed assessment; and for the assessment period up to the year ending on 30th June 2017, in case of disputed settlement. Further, 100 percent of the interest and penalty stands waived off in case of undisputed dues and 50 percent of arrears of tax, interest and/or penalty stands waived off in case of disputed dues. The said scheme shall be valid up till 23rd November, 2020.
Moreover, the Chief Minister affirmed that all those who have taken loans from credit societies are going to be granted moratorium for a period of 3 months on payment of EMI for the duration from April 2020 to June 2020 while further adding that the late payment appendage has been waived off with respect to payment of electricity bills issued with due dates of payment between 24th March 2020 and 30th June 2020 provided, the said payments are duly made by 15th July 2020. This also encompasses a moratorium on payment of set charges given to all commercial and industrial consumers for bills raised during the period between 24th March 2020 and 30th June 2020 which can be availed, if so preferred. The said charges that have been deferred will be systematically recovered by means of an equated method over the next three bills raised subsequently after 30th June 2020.
“Extending construction licenses expiring between March and June 2020 to October 2020 is a welcome step and the real estate sector appreciates the Government’s action. We expect that they will automatically take the next step in streamlining the licensing process” NILESH SALKAR, President, CREDAI Goa.
Agreeing that the current situation is catastrophic and calamitous, Dr. Sawant stated that all works that were in progress between the period of 25th March 2020 and 30th June 2020, which are currently on hold, will have to be considered as ‘Force Majeure’ for the purpose of estimating the date of completion of the said projects.
All said and done, while the State machinery is trying its best to instill normalcy and provide maximum relief to victims of the pandemic-led crisis, what comes to happen of it, is going to have to go through the test of time!
