Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Assembly of Small and Medium Enterprises (OASME) has sought the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to protect the MSME ecosystem dependent on coal-consuming industries and their ancillaries from acute shortage of coal. The MSMEs have been struggling due to the shortage of coal for the last seven months. The industry bodies have raised the issue with the Odisha government several times. But, the issue is yet to be resolved.
In a letter to the prime minister, OASME secretary general Satwik Swain said, “Even though the government has helped ensure uninterrupted power supply to independent power plants, the situation remains grim for the non-power sectors across Odisha, which are facing severe shortage of coal due to low supply. This has pushed many ancillary SMEs to the verge of closure.”
Describing the situation as ‘catastrophic’, Swain said the closure of local industries could lead to huge economic losses and lakhs of people could lose their jobs.
Despite repeated appeals by multiple MSME associations, trade chambers and industry associations like Utkal Chamber of Commerce, the Association of Industrial Entrepreneurs (AIE) and the OASME itself, there has been no resolution in this regard. The affected stakeholders have now resorted to rallying against the production and supply anomalies while seeking prioritisation of coal allocation for captive power plants (CPPs), said the letter.
“Odisha has 25 per cent of the total coal deposit of the country. Out of the 129 million tonne of coal produced through Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCA), 54 per cent is being transferred to other states and only 46 per cent is reserved for the industries in the costal state, against the actual minimum requirement of 65 per cent for local CPPs,” Swain said.
“Such acute shortage of coal is creating a dangerous situation for the manufacturing sector, threatening the survival of MSMEs, leaving the state deprived of domestic value addition and causing bad impact on the global investment,” Swain added.
The OASME urged the PM to intervene in to the issue and help normalise the situation that is affecting the entire ecosystem.
“The crisis, if not attended to immediately, could lead to closure of nearly 5,000 SMEs and lead to loss of employment and livelihood for lakhs of people who are dependent on them,” the letter stated.
