MCCI NEWS | 1

As you are aware , after a lackluster outturn in 2016, economic activity is projected to pick up pace in 2017 and 2018, especially in emerging market and developing economies. However, given uncertainty surrounding the policy stance of the U.S. administration and its global ramifications, there may be wide dispersion of possible outcomes around the projections.

The India story is at an interesting juncture. The year 2016 begun on an ominous note. The Indian economy withered two successive monsoon failures with no deleterious repercussion on growth and inflation. A normal monsoon in fiscal 2017 gave a kicker to keep its growth momentum, Benign oil and commodity prices have helped improve Indian public finances and reduced some of its external vulnerabilities. However, the impact of the various initiatives — Digital India, Skill India, Startup India, financial inclusion, etc, — launched to build a resilient and resurgent Indian economy will be seen in the forthcoming year. Green shoots are already visible. Indian markets have held their nerves in an otherwise fragile and volatile world economy. With the decks being cleared for a GST roll-out in July 2017, the ease of doing business in India will no doubt improve. With all these in place, India is slowly but surely treading towards becoming an international commercial hub.

Back home, West Bengal economy is expected to grow at 9.27 p.c. lower due to demonetization. Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS-2017) held on 20-21 January was attended by business community from across India and 29 Countries and investment proposals for Rs. 2,35,290 crores have been received in major sectors like urban development, infrastructure development, IT, manufacturing industries etc. In the State Budget, VAT threshold increased from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 20 lakh. Composition Scheme has been extended to small manufacturers. Reduction in stamp duty for specific instruments will give some relief.

We will continue to work with same enthusiasm and commitment. Please do write to me with your ideas and aspirations from the Chamber.

Yours sincerely,

Vol. V | No. 3 January-February 2017

MCCI NewsMCCI News

FROM THE PRESIDENT’S

DESK

Dear Members,

Interactive Session with Mr. Craig Hall, Consul General of the United States of America at Kolkata on “U.S. India

Economic Relations: Prospects for the Future” on January 11, 2017

(L-R) Vishal Jhajharia, Craig Hall, Hemant Bangur, Jonathan T. Ward, Ramesh Kumar Agarwal

Addressing the members, Mr. Craig Hall said that the strategic interest of the US Consulate has been to promote and facilitate Indian investments to USA. He mentioned that in 2015, India was USA’s 11th largest trade partner having around 1.8 p.c. of total US trade and 18th largest export market for USA. Trade value increased from 19 billion USD in 2000 to 109 billion USD in 2015. On the issue of reaching a trade volume of 500 billion USD, he felt that such a transition would mean that economic landscape of India would have to be totally different than what it is at present.

Mr. Hall emphatically stated that policy changes are critical for investment linkages in the state. There should be reforms in land and labour in West Bengal, so as to attract US companies to operate in the state.

He spoke about the robust education exchange programmes between India and US. He said that United States Education Foundation (USEF) had been doing excellent work with India. Indians being the 2nd largest group of immigrants to US on educational grounds, there had been a 66 p.c. increase in student enrolment recently. On H1B visas, he said that the debate regarding the issuance of such visas had been on and the number was yet to be decided by the US Government. “We need some foreign workers, need to find out how many, the number might go up

The Chamber organized an Interactive Session on “Keys to Growing US – India Commerce & Trade” with Mr. Craig L. Hall, Consul General of the United States of America in Kolkata. Mr. Jonathan T. Ward, Principal Commercial Officer, Consulate General of USA also addressed the session.

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Interactive Session with Dr. M. S. Sahoo, Chairman, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India on “The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016

- An Insight” on January 12, 2017

“Indian Banking : Challenges Ahead” with Pawan Kumar Bajaj, Managing Director & CEO, United Bank of India on January 16, 2017

(L-R) S.Rasiwasia, Dr. M. S. Sahoo, Smt. Mamta Binani, Alok Dhir & Sumit Binani

An Interactive Session was organized with Dr. M. S. Sahoo, Chairman, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India on ‘Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. Alok Dhir, Founder & Managing Partner, Dhir & Dhir Associates and Sumit Binani, a Financial Analyst and Treasurer, ICAI (EIRC) also addressed the session. Smt. Mamta Binani, Chairperson, Standing Committee on Corporate Law & Governance, MCCI chaired the Session. Addressing the members, Dr. Sahoo termed the Code as “a Regulation for the Regulated, of

(R-L) Vishal Jhajharia, Pawan Kumar Bajaj & S. Rasiwasia

MCCI organised a Session with Pawan Kumar Bajaj, MD & CEO, United Bank of India on ‘Indian Banking: Challenges Ahead’. Vishal Jhajharia, Vice President, MCCI chaired the session. Pawan Kumar Bajaj said that banks are flush with funds but they lack lending opportunities as core sector expansion is absent. Everyone is in a ‘wait and watch’ mode. With limited available lending opportunities, banks cannot replicate their previous credit growth rates of 18 p.c. to 20 p.c. Credit expansion for banks as of March

or down”, the Consul General added. Mr. Jonathan Ward informed that he year 2017 had been made “Tourism Year” by both the Governments for promotion of bilateral tourism. He also mentioned about a few are as like defence, power, restaurants that need US partnership, with

special reference to a 750 million USD investment project in Husk Power Systems in Bihar. Ramesh Kumar Agarwal, Chairman, Standing Committee on Foreign Trade mentioned about the negative trade balance for US against India providing a huge scope for growth.

the Regulated and by the Regulated”, involving 3 parties viz., the Debtors, the Creditors and Insolvency Professionals. The Code would give complete freedom to the creditors to take a conscious decision regarding liquidation of the concerned unit within the stipulated timeframe of 180 days, which could be extended up to another 90 days, on a one time basis, he noted. Focusing on the time parameter, he said that the Code aimed at time bound resolution for insolvency and exit as part of ease of doing business.

Elucidating on the implications of the Code, Dr. Sahoo pointed out that the Code would give impetus for the debt market to develop, liquidity to go up and interest rates to be adjusted accordingly. People would directly invest on the debt market and the importance of banks would go down, he felt. Alok Dhir expressed concern over the short time line prescribed at each stage of the insolvency process and felt that these timelines needed a relook. He felt that a timeline of one month given to the IPs for the preparation of important documents like Information Memorandum (IM) would be too short, as the entire future of the concerned company would depend on it. Sumit Binani, spelt out the process of liquidation under the IBC provisions and felt that the liquidator would face a challenge in collecting information, ascertaining value and the procedures that needed to be developed for successful liquidation of a unit.

2017 is expected to be in the region of 7 p.c. to 8 p.c. About Rs 15 lac crore entered the banking industry following demonetization. About 30 p.c. of this amount was subsequently withdrawn by depositors. The balance 70 p.c. remains in CASA providing banks with a low cost deposit base.

Every bank has double digit NPA figures. About 12 p.c. of bank credit today is in the stressed asset category. Whether you take agriculture, MSME or any other sector, things are not as bad as the corporate sector as 80 p.c. of NPAs lie in the corporate sector. Today, banks are focused on recovery and recovery is mostly taking place in the small scale sector. Problem assets are not adequately getting resolved in the corporate sector. A good portion of lending to corporates took place through bank consortium and if some banks do not participate, recovery of sick assets is not possible.

Vishal Jhajharia, in his opening comments said that bad loans for banks have increased to 12.3 p.c. in September 2016 and gross NPAs amounted to over Rs 6.5 lac crores. If unlocking resources from bad debts will be a huge task, an equally difficult challenge will be that of restoring profitability. Credit offtake has declined to a historic low in December 2016.

MCCI NEWS | 3

MCCI at ‘Bengal Global Business Summit – 2017’ on January 20-21, 2017

Symposium on ‘The Union Budget, 2017-18’ on February 02, 2017

(L-R) Abdul Matlub Ahmad, President, FBCCI. Surendra Keyal, Hony. Secretary, MCCI

The ‘Bengal Global Business Summit – 2017’ organized by the West Bengal Government was inaugurated by Pranab Mukherjee, Hon’ble President of India at Milan Mela Grounds, Kolkata. Hemant Bangur, President, Ramesh Agarwal, Sr. Vice President, MCCI along with Surendra Keyal, K. B. Agarwala, Santosh Saraf, Arun Kumar Saraf and other Members attended the Inaugural Session.

MCCI signed two MoUs during this period. First one was with The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FBCCI), Dhaka, Bangladesh in order to promote trade & business between India and the Bangladesh on the basis of mutual benefits and cooperation. The MOU was signed by Abdul Matlub Ahmad, President, FBCCI.Surendra Keyal, Hony. Secretary, MCCI signed on behalf of MCCI.

(L-R) Hemant Bangur, R.S.Agarwal & Ramesh Agarwal

The Chamber organized a Symposium on Union Budget 2017–18 and N K Poddar, FCA, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India, R S Agarwal, Trustee and Former President of the Chamber and Joint Chairman, Emami Group of Companies, Amitav Kothari, FCA, Former President of the Chamber and Managing Partner, Kothari & Co and Arun Kumar Agarwal, Chairman, Standing Committee on Indirect Taxes, GST and State Taxes addressed the Symposium.

While speaking on the Budget provisions on Direct Taxes, N K Poddar complimented the Finance Minister for reducing the Corporate Tax on MSMEs to 25 p.c. but felt that the Budget was silent on Limited Liability Partnerships. Corporatisaton of entities being high on priority, Partnership firms had been excluded from taking benefits, however,

(L-R) Surendra Keyal, Hony. Secretary, MCCI & Tomasz Zjawiony, Vice President & Dy. General Director, CCI

Second MoU was signed with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Katowice, Poland with a view to strengthening friendly relations and promoting exchanges and cooperation in the spheres of trade, economy and technology between Poland and India. The MOU was signed by Mr. Tomasz Zjawiony, Vice President & Dy. General Director at a special ceremony hosted by Poland delegation at ITC Sonar Bangla, Kolkata. Surendra Keyal, Hony. Secretary signed from MCCI.

Following dignitaries from Poland delegation were also present during the meeting :- Mr. Kazimierz Karolczak, Dy. Chief Minister, Marshal Office of Upper Silesia, Mr. Tomasz Lukaszuk, Ambassador of Republic of Poland in India, New Delhi, Mr. Tomasz Wisniewski, Counsellor of Economic Co-operation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Poland and Mr. Mohan Goenka, Hony Consul General of Poland in Kolkata,

(R-L) Hemant Bangur, N. K. Poddar & Amitav Kothari

LLPs should have been treated at par with the companies, he said. Moreover, MAT for such units retained at 18 p.c. should also have been proportionately reduced. He also welcomed the threshold limit for maintenance of books of accounts u/s 44AA being increased to Rs 2.5 lakh from Rs 1.2 lakh for business units and to Rs. 25 lakhs from Rs. 10 lakhs for professionals, as also the limit for tax audit u/s 44AB being increased to Rs 2 crore from the current limit of Rs 1 crore for the individual/HUFs opting for presumptive taxation u/s 44AD.

R S Agarwal felt that business community should be happy about the policy provisions in the Budget, as they are pro-development. He pointed out that the onus of the real estate business lay in going towards Tier II and Tier III cities, instead of concentrating on Tier I

4 | MCCI NEWS

and Metros and also on creation of land banks. He said that in the Budget, Research & Development sector was neglected. This was an important issue as not many competent persons were available in the country, he added.

Amitav Kothari pointed out that giving sops to MSMEs and rural sector meant that the Finance Minister accepted that demonetisation had affected these sector and growth was stunted. He spoke about absence

of proper direction for banks. He felt that banks had been saddled with NPAs, this 1 p.c. increase, from 7.5 p.c. to 8.5 p.c., on deduction of NPAs would not be effective. Arun Kumar Agarwal emphasized on the issues of Affordable housing, repeal of R & D cess and input credit for NBFCs. On GST, he said that administrative issues on GST and dual control needed to be sorted out. He added that, before GST roll out, unclaimed credit should be brought into the account for carrying forward, so that the same was not lost.

Symposium on GST - February 08, 2017

Workshop on Input Tax Credit (ITC) and Valuation under GST on February 11, 2017

(L-R) M. C. Das, Abhisek Tibrewal, Arun Kumar Agarwal & Shubham Khaitan

A Symposium on GST was organized with Abhisek Tibrewal, Practising Chartered Accountant, Faculty & Resource person on Indirect Taxes & GST, ICAI and Shubham Khaitan, Partner, S. Khaitan & Associates, who is also a Faculty & Resource person on GST, ICAI, Kolkata. The discussion was initiated by Arun Kumar Agarwal, Chairman, Standing Committee on Indirect Taxes, GST & State Taxes who gave a brief overview on GST. Abhisek Tibrewal spoke on Technological Overview on Invoicing & Registration under GST regime. Registration is

(L-R)M.C.Das, Harsh Gadodia, Rohit Surana & Arun Kumar Agarwal

A Workshop on Input Tax Credit (ITC) and Valuation under GST was organized with Rohit Surana, Empanelled Faculty on GST in ICAI, Kolkata and Senior Partner, RSPA & Associates and Harsh Gadodia, Empanelled Faculty on GST in ICAI, Kolkata and Partner, SBAC & Associates. Arun Kumar Agarwal, Chairman, Standing Committee on Indirect Taxes, GST & State Taxes a gave a brief outline of Goods and Services Tax.

compulsory if Aggregate Turnover (AT) in a financial year exceeds Rs. 20 lakhs (Rs. 10 lakhs for ‘special category states’ i.e. North East including Sikkim, J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand). An agriculturist for the purpose of agriculture is also exempted. PAN is required for GST Registration and State wise Registration to be obtained.

Separate Registration for separate business verticals. Registration Certificate to be displayed at prominent location at the principal place of business Shubham Khaitan spoke on the “Returns, Payments and Impact of GST on an entity’s Technology”. Returns are to be submitted for Outward Supplies by 10th of next month (GSTR-1), for Inward Supplies by 15th of next month (GSTR-2) and Monthly Return by 20th of next month (GSTR-3).

Annual Return (GSTR-9)is to be submitted by 31st December of the following financial year (other than Composition /ISD/ TDS/ TCS/ CTP/NRTP) In case of any omission or incorrect particulars submitted earlier, rectification in the return is to be furnished for the month or quarter in which they are noticed. However, no rectification is allowed after Due date of return for Sept/ 2nd Quarter of the next year or after filing of Annual return. In case of failure to file Returns, Notice will be issued under GSTR 3A with the option to file the return within 15 days with late fees.

Rohit Surana gave the definitions of Input, Input Services, Capital Goods and Input Tax & Input Tax Credit under Model GST Law. Every registered dealer subject to such conditions and restrictions prescribed in the act is entitled to take credit of input on supply of goods or services to him which are used in the course or furtherance of his business and the said amount will be credited to the electronic credit ledger. Credit that could be taken in case of Capital Goods and Other Assets.

The registered dealer should comply with the Tax Invoice, Debit Note or any other document prescribed in the act, receipts of goods or services and the tax payment made to avail input tax credit: The Return should be filed on or before 20th of every month. He also mentioned the types of goods and services where input tax credit are not allowed:

On “Valuation under GST”, Harsh Gadodia explained that Value should be the Transaction Value, i.e., Price actually paid or payable for the said supply of Goods/Services and Supplier and Recipient are not related. Related persons would include Officers or Directors, Members of the same family, Legal Partners, Employers & Employees with ownership of 25 p.c. or more, one person controlling the other or both control a 3rd party or both being controlled by a 3rd party.

MCCI NEWS | 5

Interactive Session with Ashwani Kumar, CMD, Dena Bank on “Indian Banking : Post Demonetisation”on February 13, 2017

Seminar on Model GST Law jointly with Office of the Commissioner of Service Tax II, Kolkata on February 13, 2017

(L-R) S. Rasiwasia, Ashwani Kumar, Ramesh Agarwal & Amitav Kothari

An Interactive Session was organized with Ashwani Kumar, Chairman & Managing Director, Dena Bank on “Indian Banking: Post Demonetisation”. Amitav Kothari, former President of the Chamber also addressed the session. Ramesh Agarwal, Senior Vice President MCCI chaired the session. “Demonetisation has been a Blessing in Disguise and there will be a V–shaped recovery post demonetization”, said Ashwani Kumar. Although there were disruptions earlier, these

Jointly with the Office of the Commissioner of Service Tax II, Kolkata, the Chamber organized a full day Seminar on Model GST Law. The objective of this Outreach Programme by the Commissionerate of Service Tax II, Kolkata, Central Board of Excise & Customs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India was to reach out to the business community to make them aware of the different provisions of GST. Partha Roy Chowdhury, IRS, Commissioner, Service Tax II, Kolkata, inaugurated the Seminar. Partha Roy Chowdhury said that GST had been based on the concept of “One India – One Nation – One Tax”, which would encompass all indirect taxes and mentioned about the series of Outreach Programmes being conducted at districts of West Bengal also. Arun Kumar Agarwal, Chairman, Standing Committee on Indirect Taxes & GST, MCCI gave a brief overview of Model GST Law. Ankan Bose, Supdt. LTU Spoke on Return & Registration. He said that

would phase out in course of time and would not affect the growth path in the medium term. Another major benefit of demonetization was progress made along the digital line, from “less cash to cashless” which is important. Regarding NPAs, he felt that the worst was over. He was of the view that sectors like Iron & Steel, Real Estate, Power had their own problems, which led to huge NPAs. Diversion of funds was not the only issue. Regarding slow credit off take, the Chairman commented on slow demand as the guiding force.

Ashwani Kumar spoke candidly about the acute shortage of manpower in his bank, which was true for all other banks also. He felt that although skilling of people was very important, however, work experience could not be replaced with anything. This challenge would be overcome with proper training and grooming of people, he noted. Earlier Amitav Kothari raised the issue of NPA problem of the banks, particularly in Iron & Steel, Real Estate sectors which required timely handling. He mentioned that post demonetization, around Rs.14 lakh crs. had been deposited till December 2016, but after that there was no information from RBI about the actual amount deposited in the form of old currencies. He also raised the issues of meeting the Basel III norms and the shortage of skilled manpower in the banks.

Migration was the process of issuance of a a 15-digit number GSTIN (GST Identification Number) to existing taxpayers registered under Excise or Service Tax or State VAT for smooth rollout of GST. It would comprise of initial 2-digit State Code followed by 10-digit PAN. While the 13th digit would refer to the business identifier (A-Z,1-9), 14th & 15th digits would be meant for Systems control purpose. Ashok Das, Supdt, NACEN spoke on the concept of supply, time of supply and transaction value under GST.

Debashis Guha Biswas, Supdt, Central Excise, Kol V explained the Conditions to be fulfilled a person for availing Input Tax Credit.He further mentioned about the items to be considered under Negative List for ITC. Manas Bandopadhyay, former Assistant Commissioner spoke on Transitional Provisions towards GST regime.

Partha Roy Chowdhury, Commissioner, Service Tax

(L-R) M. C. Das, M. Bandopadhyay, A. K. Agarwal. S. K. Goyal & A. Das

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Interactive Session with R P Marathe, MD & CEO, Bank of Maharashtra on “Revival of Indian Economy & Role of Banks” on February 17, 2017

Conference on Emerging Technologies and Application for Steelmaking,

Continuous Casting, Rolling & Finishing Mills on February 17, 2017 at The

Gateway Hotel, Kolkata Interactive Session on ‘Keys to Growing India-China Commerce & Trade’ with Mr. Ma Zhanwu, Consul General for

People’s Republic of China in Kolkata on February 22, 2017

(L-R) Amitav Kothari, R.P.Marathe, Hemant Bangur & S. Rasiwasia

R P Marathe, MD & CEO, Bank of Maharashtra addressed and interacted with the members on “Revival of Indian Economy & Role of Banks”. Amitav Kothari, Past President and Financial Analyst also addressed the session. While speaking on the occasion, R.P.Marathe said that historically, GDP growth rate in the Indian economy had been the highest during 2006–2009 at 8.5–9 p.c., during which banking sector grew at 20–25 p.c The sectors which drove the growth like Infra, Steel, Power had overleveraged them beyond their capacity, which resulted in

Panel Discussion in progress.(L-R) Francesco Esposito, Prasant Das, P.K. Rath, Lalit Beriwala, Amitabh Akhauri and Dr. Sushmita Dasgupta

Steel & Metallurgy, a leading techno-commercial magazine organized jointly with MCCI a Conference on Emerging Technologies and Application for Steelmaking, Continuous Casting, Rolling & Finishing Mills. 13 papers were presented in two technical sessions. The Conference started with a Panel Discussion on ‘Challenges before the Indian Steel Industry and Survival Strategies’ with Francesco Esposito, Managing Director, Danieli India Ltd., Prasant Das, Executive Director (NMDC Iron & Steel Plant), P.K. Rath, Executive Director (Operations),

NPAs in the banks later on. Prior to the economic reforms in 1991, NPA percentage i.e. bad loans as a percentage of total loans were 15–20 p.c., which came down to 2–3 p.c. around 2008. Banking crises then precipitated with policy paralysis, which led to increase in NPAs. Total NPA of Indian banking system now was around INR 8 lakh cr. with INR 112 lakh cr. total deposits, he maintained. Credit to GDP ratio was only around 50 p.c., while that of China was around 125 p.c. Low credit off–take was the outcome of plenty of reasons like lack of supportive policy, sluggish demand, demonetization and others.

Amitav Kothari mentioned about high NPAs of the banks particularly public sector banks. He mentioned that neither RBI nor the Finance Ministry is making public any information about amount of money deposited in old currencies. On meeting the Basel III capital ratios, he said that there was no roadmap as to how such huge capital would be raised. He enquired if merger of certain PSU banks were in the pipeline and what would be the timeline. Earlier, Hemant Bangur, President, MCCI raised issues like NPA problem and bad debts of banks, demonetization, priority lending towards MSMEs, raising of capital to comply with BASEL III norms, low credit off take and poor loan recovery by banks.

RINL, Amitabh Akhauri, General Manager (Lube Sales), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Dr. Sushmita Dasgupta, Jt. Chief Economist, JPC, Ministry of Steel and Lalit Beriwala, Chairman, MCCI Standing Committee on Steel. Nirmalya Mukherjee, Editor, Steel & Metallurgy conducted the session. All the big producers like SAIL, TATA Steel, JSWSteel, RINL etc. participated in the conference.

An Interactive Session was held with Mr. Ma Zhanwu, Consul General for People’s Republic of China in Kolkata on ‘Keys to Growing India-China Commerce & Trade’. Ramesh Agarwal, Sr. Vice President, MCCI chaired the session.

(R-L) Ramesh Agarwal, Mr. Ma Zhanwu & Arpit Dhandhali

MCCI NEWS | 7

SEMINAR MSME

FORTHCOMInG EVEnTSSEMInAR OnSustainability of MSMEs in West Bengal: The Way Forward With Vijay Bharati, IAS, Director MSME GoWB & MD, WBSIDC, K. C.Vaid, GM, SIDBI & Suresh Karmali, Zonal GM, NSIC on 03 March 2017

InTERACTIVE SESSIOnOn ‘Role of Advocate General’ with Kishore Datta, Advocate General of West Bengal on 07 March 2017

InTERACTIVE SESSIOn With Rajib Bhattacharya, Regional Provident Fund Commissioner (I) on 09 March 2017

InTERACTIVE SESSIOn

On ‘A journey of Indirect Tax towards GST’ With Dr.Satish Chandra, President, CESTAT on 22. 3. 2017

SESSIOnWith Dr Somdutt Prasad MS (Cal), FRCS(Edin), FRCOphth (Lond), FACS (USA), CCST (UK) on Eye. & Dr.Moon Chattaraj, HOD, Dental Department, on Oral Hygiene of AMRI Hospitals on 23.3.2017

A HEAltH

AwARENESS

InTERACTIVE SESSIOn

With Dr. Parthasarathi Shome, Former Adviser to Finance Minister of India & Chairman, International Tax research & Analysis Foundation on 07 April 2017

Awareness Programme on ‘Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace

(Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013” on February 27, 2017

(L-R) M.S. Dwivedy, Smt. Sunanda Mukherjee, Rishabh Kothari & Vishal Kedia

Chamber organized an Awareness Programme on “Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013” . The programme was addressed by Smt. Sunanda Mukherjee, Hon’ble Chairperson, West Bengal Commission for Women, M.S. Dwivedy, Hon’ble Member (Judicial), West Bengal Human Rights Commission and Vishal Kedia, Consultant & Eminent Speaker. Rishabh Kothari, Chairman, Standing Committee on MSMEs chaired the session.

Addressing the members, Smt. Sunanda Mukherjee said that “the Human Rights Commissions and the Commissions for Women are quasi–judicial bodies with recommendatory powers and monitoring authorities. They are not sufficiently empowered to ensure justice for the victims”. She was of the opinion that this Law had been a great leap forward where the employer had been given full responsibility to handle cases, which were actually HR issues. However, there had been widespread implementation lapses. Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) had not been constituted in many of the companies and the women victims had to face so much agony, as also fear of job loss. Not only in the private sector, sexual harassment of women had been happening everywhere, in the Judiciary, Armed Forces; even the education sector including schools, colleges and universities were no

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ma Zhanwu observed that strong cultural ties exist between China and India, especially West Bengal over last 1000 years. China exports a lot of items to India because they are cost effective and inexpensive. He proposed that the Chamber could suggest names of authentic Indian companies who can partner with the Chinese companies for doing business in either country. Chinese companies are investing in Bengal and looking for prospective local partners.He informed that China has invited Hon’ble Chief Minister of West Bengal to visit Jiangshu and Yunan provinces of China to promote trade and development with West Bengal. He suggested three propositions : 1) A China-India friendship Treaty would help in promoting feelings of trust and friendship. China does not see India as a threat and does not want to impose threat for the latter. 2) A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between China and India could facilitate trade and commerce. 3) While China can support India in its Look East Policy, India can support China in The Belt and Road Initiative for greater inter-connectivity.

longer free from such gender discrimination, she added. M S Dwivedy pointed out that sexual harassments at workplace were extremely sensitive in nature as they happened mostly within the four walls of office premises. He also highlighted on the need for sensitization of the personnel at the workplace, in addition to awareness programmes. Vishal Kedia mentioned that the Law had brought in a paradigm shift, so far as women safety was concerned. He, however, said that the enactment was more preventive than curative and it entailed only punishment in terms of fine and no imprisonment.

He pointed out that the law was mandatory for all organisations irrespective of its constitution. He clarified that to make a complaint on sexual harassment, the woman need not be an employee, she could be a visitor, a vendor, a customer, a bystander, an intern, or even a job seeker. Organisations would have to comply with the law regardless of the number of employees. He also said that the lady concerned had the option of going to the Local Complaints Committee (LCC), if she feels ICC may not be independent.

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Published by Shri M. C. Das Dy. Director General, Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry, 15B, Hemanta Basu Sarani, Kolkata - 700 001 Tel.: 91 33 2248 1502/6329/3123/2262 5070-74, Fax: 91 33 2248 8657, Email: mcciorg@gmail.com, mcciorg@mcciorg.com, Website: mcciorg.com

Editor : M. C. Das, Dy. Director General. Contact Person : S Roy, Asst. Director GeneralPrinted & Designed at : CDC Printers Pvt. Ltd., Tangra Industrial Estate-II, (Bengal Pottery) 45, Radhanath Chowdhury Road, Kolkata - 700 015

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Factory output bounces back in January, expands by 2.7%

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Industrial production bounced back into expansion in January, kicking off the financial year’s last quarter on a positive note albeit amid expectations that it will bear the brunt of demonetisation. Except for the consumer nondurables sector, all other subsectors of the index of industrial production reported growth, capital goods leading with a 10.7% rise in January. Mining was up 5.3%, manufacturing 2.3% and electricity generation 3.9%, all contributing to the IIP surge. Production of consumer goods was down 1% in January from a year ago because of a 3.2% fall in the output of consumer non-durables. Consumer durables rose 2.9% in January.