Industry associations flay 4-day holiday for IFR

Industry associations flay 4-day holiday for IFR
ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU

MUMBAI, FEB 13: Soon after the Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC) flayed the State Government's decision to order a 4-day holiday due to the International Fleet Review from February 15, yet another association has said the holidays will result in heavy losses to trade and industry. ``The 4-day industry closure ordered by the State government is ill-timed at the fag end of the financial year as it will result in substantial losses to trade and industry in the country's commercial capital,'' said All India Association of Industries President (AIAI) Vijay Kalantri.

``There are two more bank holidays this month on February 19 and February 21 on account of `Shiv Jayanti' and `Mahashivratri', along with the fourth Saturday at the month-end. The seven-day holiday spree is thus expected to negatively impact productivity and business activities at a crucial juncture when the economy is slowing down and showing signs of recession with GDP growth projected at around 6 per cent only,'' he said.

The industry closure is ostensibly to reduce atmospheric pollution by vehicles and motor transport plying to South Mumbai, where the fleet review is scheduled onshore and offshore, replete with naval parades, naval ship maneuvers and fly past by naval aircraft from different navies, participating in the review.

A large number of VVIPs, including the President and the Prime Minister, will witness the review and the authorities want to ensure a clear visibility for the ceremonies. However, the right course of action is to take a pragmatic and realistic view to balance the priorities of staging the prestigious naval review while permitting trade and industry to conduct their normal day-to-day business, he added.

Deft management of traffic can offer a practical solution instead of burdening the industries and business houses whose offices are located in and international banks, the Mumbai Stock Exchange, Reserve Bank of India and leading corporate houses. Again, it is imperative that captains of trade and industry must be taken into confidence through dialogue and the matter of declaring bank holidays should be taken only after obtaining a general consensus and ascertaining their views.

``The State Government is also facing serious financial difficulties and any further loss to the state exchequer will have a deleterious effect on its revenues. It is surprising therefore that the Maharashtra Governor P C Alexander, has gone on record appealing to vehicle owners and transport operators to stop functioning during the period of the fleet review,'' he complained.

The spate of holidays in the Indian calendar for the year 2000 may have already resulted in a loss of Rs 2,700 crore approximately to the national exchequer, besides a host of invisible and incidental losses. Significantly, almost a decade after liberalization of the Indian economy, the government continues to follow the British regime of declaring holidays without considering the colossal loss to the national exchequer, conservatively estimated at Rs 100 crore for every such holiday. When compounded with man-days lost and decline in national productivity, the loss is manifold.

For the entire year 2000, there have been as many as 99 holidays, including Sundays and non-working Saturdays. The total loss to the exchequer for 27 declared holidays at Rs 100 crore for every holiday, excluding non working Saturdays and Sundays will thus be approximately Rs 2,700 crore. The worst hit sections are daily wagers, taxi, auto and transport workers, port and dock labour, restaurant workers and other labourers.

In the highly competitive global order wherein national boundaries are disappearing due to convergence activated by trade and commece, India cannot afford to have so many holidays and non-working days. In advanced countries, work continues non-stop even during the night as a result of which productivity has peaked to phenomenal levels.

In India, there is no practice of working at night though several suggestions have been made in this regard mainly to reduce congestion in highly populous metros like Mumbai where the entire working force converage at different points during specific periods creating a plethora of problems.

It is pertinent to state that the Finance Commission has recommended wage hikes for all sections of government employees and even banks have announced a 12.5 per cent hike in wages for their employees. The wage increase have been declared without considering the productivity of the workforce taking into account holidays, admissible leave like privilege leave, sick leave and casual leave throughout the year. Even the working hours are relatively less when compared to other countries.

It is, therefore, imperative that the government should restrain itself from declaring national and bank holidays without consulting captains of trade and industry and importantly ther should be no compulsion in this regard from any quarter whatsoever, be it political or labour unions. It may be noted that industrial loss amounts to Rs 60,000 crore and export loss amounts to Rs 20,000 crore due to such holidays. In competing countries like South Korea the working hours have been increased from 48 hours to 56 hours per week, for better productivity. In countries like Thailand, Singapore, Bangladesh and Malaysia, the banking hours are 8 am to 7 pm and half days on holidays like Sundays.