Lockdown 2.0: Partial Relief

In response to the ACMA SOS seeking priority intervention for operational sustainability of the components industry, the Government of India announced partial relief measures under Lockdown 2.0 guidelines.

- Ashish Bhatia

The Auto Components Manufacturers Association (ACMA) had sought priority Government intervention for the operational sustainability of the components industry while it mobilised all possible resources and assets to help the Government and front-line workers fight the pandemic as per a March 27, 2020 release. According to Deepak Jain, President ACMA, the auto component manufacturers, especially from the tier-2 and tier-3 regions were facing severe hardships in form of cash flow, which if not immediately addressed could lead to the insolvency of such badly hit companies. Claimed Jain that the component sector’s estimated production loss is pegged at 1-1.2 crore per day. Among key demands put forward were relaxation of borrowing norms and statutory payments, an extension of the moratorium on payment of principal and interest of loans for a year to ease the norms of NPA, relaxation in fixed electricity charge and relaxation in levying demurrage charges for at least seven days for import cargo clearance to name a few.

MHA Order

Exercising powers under Section 10(2)(I) of the Disaster Management Act 2005, Chairperson, National Executive Committee, in an order dated April 14, 2020, extended the lockdown measures stipulated in the consolidated guidelines of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to May 03, 2020. Lockdown 2.0, aimed at furthering the efforts to contain Covid-19 in the country albeit turned out to be different. With it, the Government of India (GoI) acknowledged the SOS calls from several distressed industrial sectors including the auto components industry. The measures are expected to partially relieve the industry of its pain points.