Lockdown: UP labour reforms will spur investment, create jobs: MSMEs

MSME chamber IIA urges labour unions to support these relaxations

The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) have hailed the Uttar Pradesh government's labour reforms saying it will spur fresh investment and create job opportunities amid the Covid-19 lockdown.

The Yogi Adityanath cabinet had on Wednesday approved the urgent proposal to amend several labour laws through an ordinance to facilitate the speedy revival of largely paralysed business and industrial activities in UP.

The government has given its nod to the ordinance, which exempts businesses from the purview of major labour laws for three years to overcome the challenges of covid-19 lockdown by purportedly attracting fresh investment, enable faster resumption of industrial activities and easing norms.

Welcoming these proposed labour reforms, MSME chamber Indian Industries Association (IIA) claimed they were imperative to countervail the challenges posed by covid-19 lockdown and its resultant aftermaths.

The UP Temporary Exemption from Certain Labour Laws Ordinance, 2020 seeks to exempt all the establishments, factories and business entities from all, barring a few labour laws and related rules, for a period of three years.

According to IIA national president Pankaj Kumar, the relaxation of the labour laws would benefit all the stakeholders viz. workers, industry and the government. He noted with the expected spurt in fresh employment generation owing to these reforms, the workers will also get better emoluments as had happened during the erstwhile computer and IT revolution in India.

He also called upon the labour unions to welcome this decision in the overall interest of all the concerned stakeholders.

“These decisions will not only help in improving the condition of badly affected industrial activity due to Covid-19 pandemic, but remove a great hurdle for the investors who are willing to invest in UP,” he observed adding the decision will goad faster progress of industrial activities and creation of employment opportunities for the youth.

Expressing the possibility that the control of Covid-19 could take longer and exposing the industrialists to its aftereffects, the Association claimed these labour reforms will surely ease such challenges to some extent, allowing the entrepreneurs to devote more time towards increasing productivity.

 

Besides, the tax revenue of the government has fallen considerably due to sluggish industrial and business activities. Therefore, the tax revenue will also increase with the faster revival of industries, allowing the government to utilise such funds for the developmental works in the state, the IIA note added.

The MSME sector accounted for more than 80 per cent of UP’s exports worth Rs 1.14 trillion in 2018-19. The MSMEs generate nearly 60 per cent of the industrial output and ranks second after agriculture in the highest employment generation.

Chief Minister Adityanath has on numerous occasions termed the MSME sector as the backbone of the state’s industrial landscape and said the government could act as a catalyst by promoting the various MSME clusters.