Uttar Pradesh still remains a no-no for entrepreneurs

Saurabh Sharma

Lucknow: Sanjeev Kumar, a small entrepreneur from Meerut district in Uttar Pradesh has been running from pillar to post to get back his dues from a South India based company.

Kumar, who deals in doors and door frames, had supplied raw materials to the company worth more than Rs 3 crore. Initially, he was getting payment on a regular basis but later, the company blocked his payments worth more than Rs 92 lakh saying that the goods did not meet their standards.

The businessman hailing from Meerut knocked the doors of Micro & Small Facilitation Council to get back his worth but to his nightmare, five meetings of the council have been cancelled in a row without any concrete reasons. This illustrates the plight of thousands of entrepreneurs who have been condemned to incur losses due to non-conducive environment in industry department of Uttar Pradesh.

The MSE Facilitation council meetings:

• The council is meant to redress complaints of the entrepreneurs but failed to discharge its duties.

• The first meeting of the council was fixed for March 8 last but it stood cancelled at the eleventh hour causing a huge dissatisfaction amongst entrepreneurs who reached to attend the meeting from far flung areas.
• The meeting was rescheduled for April 27last and was postponed for April 28 but that too was cancelled at 1130 hours.
• The meeting was again called on May 18^thbut it met the same fate.
• The MSE called for the meeting again on June 8 and the entrepreneurs were informed that the meeting has been postponed again.

There are more than 8 lakh manufacturing and 23 lakh service providing micro and small businessmen in Uttar Pradesh and more than half of their population are in big loss on account of their precious time and capital even when the MSDE act says that payment in such cases should be made within 45 days.

What the MSDE act says:

Section 15 of the MSDE act says that the buyer shall make the payment therefore on or before the date of agreed upon between him and the supplier in writing or, where there is no agreement in this belief, before the appointed date.

Provided that in no case the period agreed upon between the supplier and the buyer in writing shall exceed 45 days from the date of acceptance or the day of deemed acceptance.