The Chamber of Industrial & Commercial Undertakings (CICU) since its inception in 1968 onwards had been endeavouring, with a motive to keep alive the basic objectives of this nodal organisation to serve the trade and industry of the State of Punjab selflessly and to provide wholesome protection and congenial environment for the growth and survival of the industry of the State. This could be possib
le with the wholehearted, dedicated co operation and strength provided by all the worthy members of this chamber. CICU is a non government, not-for-profit, industry lead and industry managed organization playing a proactive role in Punjab’s developmental process. I remember that during my tenure of 13 years as General Secretary of the Chamber we had been able to impress upon the State and Central Government to derive from them the industrial friendly policies from time to time. The cycle industry which was brought under the Central Excise net by the Ministry of Finance was suitably opposed by the Chamber authorities resulting into withdrawal of Central Excise duty on cycle and cycle parts. Similarly, the arbitrary strategy adopted by the five big steel manufacturers in India, who hiked the prices of basic raw material of steel unprecedentedly, thereby disturbing the MSMEs of the engineering industry, namely bicycle and bicycle parts, hand tools, machine tools, auto parts, etc. was also taken up with the Minister of Steel, Minister of Commerce and Industry & Prime Minister, Government of India, New Delhi for solving the various problems of the engineering / steel consuming industry. The Prime Minister and the Finance Minister were kind enough to review the Custom and Central Excise duty rates on steel products which were subsequently reduced substantially to control the rising trend in the steel prices. The industry as you are aware is still passing through precarious situation due to unfavourable power supply policy of the PSEB. The chamber has already filed a writ petition against the proposed hike in the rates of power tariff for domestic and industrial consumers and condemned unscheduled power cuts which have ultimately adversely effected the industrial production in the State. Our Chamber along with our affiliated associations are vigorously and regularly apprising Chief Minister Punjab and Chairman, PSEB to provide uninterrupted power supply for survival of MSME Industry. The Chamber has constantly been taking up with the Finance Minister of Punjab, Shri Manpreet Singh Badal and the Excise & Taxation Department, Punjab for expeditious release of VAT refunds so as to ease financial position of the exporters. To accomplish the attainment of the Objectives of the Chamber, targeted for the development of Trade and Industry in the State, the Chamber has developed its own Complex (CICU Complex) at E-648-A, Phase V, Focal Point, Ludhiana (Punjab) where a comprehensive industrial friendly activities are being culminated. With a view to provide wide array of free advisory services to the members, a separate secretariat wing is functioning, where proper guidance is provided by the consultants of various departments working in the Chamber. There are several challenges but the utmost to my mind, presently confronting our industry in adopting globalization, is competitiveness for which, we have to be efficient, productive, manage costs, maintain high quality, serve customer needs, conserve resources and avoid waste. The next fundamental issue is to upgrade our technology to compete in the International Market. competitiveness and production of high quality products are to be achieved to keep pace with the world products of developed countries.
