PATNA: Industrialists, who have shut down their industries since September 1, find themselves in a catch-22 situation whether to continue the shutdown or restart the industries which even otherwise might close down due to imposition of fuel surcharge on their units with a retrospective effect from October 2008.
Having already witnessed closure of a large number of industries till 2000 due to imposition of fuel surcharge from retrospective effect for the previous more than five years, industrialists, who gathered at the Bihar Chamber of Commerce here on Friday, discussed the consequences of shutting down their units. The pros and cons of restarting the industries were also discussed taking into account the heavy pressure of the 69 paise per unit fuel surcharge imposed on them.
The former president of the Bihar Chamber of Commerce, Jugeshwar Pandey, said it is indeed a catch-22 situation for them. With the audit of all the industrial units for the financial year 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 having already been done by chartered accountants, the industries find it difficult to pay the fuel surcharge imposed on them for the previous two years as the fuel surcharge runs into lakhs for small industries and in crores for the big industries, including steel industries.
This would wreck the industries leading to their closure, said the leading steel industries owners, including the vice-president of the Bihar Industries Association, Subhash Kumar Patwari, and the secretary of the Bihar Steel Manufacturers Association, Sanjeev Kumar Chaudhary.
The president of the Bihar Chamber of Commerce, P K Agrawal, who is a chartered accountant, and some industrialists told TOI that shutting down industries for a long period would make their re-running difficult as during the shutdown period, the establishment cost, including wage payment to workers, would continue without any production. This would lead to closure of many industries, they said.