Members of the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Small and Medium Industries’ Associations (FAPSIA) have expressed their inability to pay salaries and wages to their staff and workers during the lockdown period due to zero cash inflow.
In a letter addressed to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday, Federation president Murali Krishna Vasireddy said paying salaries to the workers for the month of March itself was a very difficult task due to the lockdown.
Appeal to government
“It is not possible to pay salaries to the employees for the month of April due to acute shortage of funds. Some entrepreneurs are not in a position to even meet their regular expenses,” he explained.
He appealed to the government to intervene and provide the MSME sector the support needed to withstand the COVID-19 blow and get back to normal. If the situation remained the same, many manufacturing units in the State might face the end of the road soon, he said.
Explaining the grim scenario, Mr. Murali Krishna said the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown had dealt a severe blow to the SME sector.
The raw material purchased for production, the processed material and the material held in transit had severely disrupted the cash flow. Apparently, some material with limited shelf life and certain semi-finished material were also set to expire due to various reasons, which, in turn, were causing a dent in their financial sustainability. To restart the production activities and proper maintenance of machinery, the entrepreneurs would incur additional costs, he pointed out.