Punjab industry in doldrums, 32,594 units still in lockdown

Non-availability of raw material, shortage of workers, capital and dip in demand for finished products major concerns

CHANDIGARH: A third of the 32,594 non-functional industrial units in Punjab are unable to restart manufacturing due to a shortage of raw material and labour.

Of the total 2.59 lakh registered industrial units in the state, 2.27 lakh, or say 87%, have commenced their operations after the coronavirus-induced restrictions were eased during the lockdown 4.0 about three weeks ago. The remaining factories are still in lockdown and grappling with non-availability of raw material, shortage of working hands, working capital crunch, and slump in demand for finished products, revealed a survey carried out by the state industries department.

About half of these non-functional units (15,598) are in the state’s industrial hub of Ludhiana. As per data collected by the department through the district industry centres, non-availability of raw material is the primary reason for inability of 5,637 industrial units to resume production and 5,288 are facing labour shortage as a large number of migrant workers have returned home.

4,427 UNITS LOCATED IN CONTAINMENT AREAS

Another 4,548 and 3,587 factories have been held back by the poor demand for their products and finance problems, respectively, whereas 4,427 units are located in containment areas where activities are still not allowed. The industries department has not received information from districts Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (earlier known as Nawanshahr), Barnala, Gurdaspur, Sangrur, and Pathankot.

Industries director Sibin C said some industrial units were having issues related to raw material, labour and finance and are still not able to resume operations, but things would stabilise soon. “The shortage of labour will end sooner than later as passenger trains have resumed. The raw material movement from some parts of the country and abroad remains a matter of concern for some sectors, though,” he said, citing the examples of textiles and bicycle sectors, which source their raw material from China.

Sibin said the department would also set up a helpdesk at the state headquarters to facilitate industrial units get funds from the ₹20,000-crore subordinate debt announced by the centre for stressed micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) for which the guidelines were awaited. But this is half the story. The industries, which have resumed production, are also no less worried due to rising cost and demand slump. Badish Jindal, president of Federation of Punjab Small Industries Association said power and labour costs had gone up as units were operating less than 50% capacity.

“Migrant workers are demanding more money and twopart power tariff means we have to have to shell out a lot more for per unit of electricity consumed due to high fixed charges and low consumption. Another problem is delayed payments,” he said. The industry associations requested industries minister Sunder Sham Arora, who was in Ludhiana on Thursday, to do away with fixed charges for electricity to industrial consumers for the time being.

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) chairman, Punjab, Karan Gilhotra had also last week termed labour shortage, disruption in supply chain and decline in demand as a serious challenge for the state industry. The factories were shut down after curfew was imposed in the state on March 23. Though the central and state governments later allowed industries, only 7% restarted operations till March 16 but there has been a spurt in their number since.