More on Covid-19

NEW DELHI: Amid the loss of business due to the nationwide lockdown to thwart the COVID-19 spread, the Congress has demanded that the government should bring a law that there should be no retrenchment of employees in the next six months, which should be applicable to every company and enterprise."Central Government should come out with a law -- no retrenchment in any sector or company whatsoever for next six months between March to August, 2020," said the Congress.Addressing a press conference, Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said, "There should be no retrenchment in any sector or company whatsoever for the next six months. This should be a government law and applicable to every company/enterprise."The party said, "We assume India Inc contributes around 40 per cent to GDP, which is approx Rs 84 lakh crores. Ten per cent of it is employee benefits of around Rs 8.4 lakh crore. Out of which 15 per cent is at the lower end of the corporate salary structure. If 50 per cent of the above are getting impacted, which is equivalent of 1.50 per cent of GDP."The party demanded that the government should bear 70 per cent of the Salary and Wage Bill of the MSMEs for three months between March to May, 2020.Vallabh said, "There are approximately 4.25 crore MSMEs in India as of 2019, and contribution of the sector to GDP is 29 per cent, which is approximately Rs 61 lakh crore."Assuming the wage bill of the MSME to be 10 per cent of the turnover, we can consider Rs 6.1 lakh crore as the wage bill. One month of the same is around Rs 50,000 crore and for three months it is around Rs 1.50 lakh crore. 70 per cent of the same works out to approximately Rs one lakh crore and assuming that approximately 45 crore are employed, this works out to only Rs 2,200 per person employed.""Truck drivers are the backbone of the economy. Due to this unprecedented disruption these people, who support a minimum of five people in their respective families, are likely to go hungry. The government has to support these people by providing immediate advance to transporters by DBT to the extent of three months of their wages," said Vallabh.The Congress said that there are around 30 lakh truck drivers in the country, and the total burden will be around Rs 25,000 crore. This will also ensure a smooth supply chain.