Micro and small-scale industries in Coimbatore city seek exemption from professional tax

Micro and small-scale industries in Coimbatore city seek exemption from running licence and professional tax due to challenging business situation.

Micro and small-scale industries that operate in the Coimbatore Corporation limits have sought exemption from running licence and professional tax.

The Tamil Nadu Association of Cottage and Tiny Enterprises (TACT) and the Federation of Coimbatore Industrial Associations (FOCIA) have submitted a memorandum to the Coimbatore Corporation demanding exemption from the levies saying the industry faced challenging business situation.

The Corporation officials held a meeting here recently with trade and industry representatives on the running licence and professional tax rates.

The associations said the micro and small-scale units do job orders for larger industries in sectors such as pumpset, wet grinder, fabrication, plastic, and grill works. These units do not get orders throughout the year and the margins are low. Since demonetisation, the micro and small-scale units are facing several challenges and many have professional tax arrears too. So, the civic body should not collect arrears from these units and should not take action on them. It should also exempt the units from running licence and professional tax. The tax slabs should be determined based on the electricity units consumed and not on number of people employed or area of the building, the associations said.

According to J. James, president of TACT, the Corporation is looking at steep hike in the charges collected from industries and trade. The Coimbatore Corporation had already hiked property tax 250 %. Several industries that were operating in the fringe areas of the city became part of the Corporation as they were located in the areas added to the Corporation and now had no option but to pay multiple taxes to the civic body. The associations demanded at the meeting a single tax for businesses in the Corporation areas. Further, the Corporation should have separate meetings with each sector before finalising the tax slabs, he said.