 Hello, welcome to NewsClick. Today we are going to discuss about the current economic situation in the country and we have with us A.S. Saundar Rajan, C.I. to Tamil Nadu. Welcome sir. Welcome. The Finance Minister, Nirmala Siddharamand says there is no sign of economic slowdown but looks like the ground reality is different. What is your take on this? Nirmala Siddharamand's statement is totally lying. And also it is more obvious. It is no test, no examination. Nothing is necessary to see that there is an economic slowdown. There is a sharp decline in every aspect of the economy, every aspect of the industrial development. Whether it is primary sector or secondary sector like manufacturing or service sector. Every sector is in slowdown, in coming down. It is happening. How is he telling like this? It is a surprise to me. Whether he is living in India or not, that is my question. That is the thing. Many companies in the automobile sector has closed down their production for some time. There are compulsory hold days, VRS, the deep impact on the contract levels. Maruti has shut down their plan for two days. Ashok Lailand has given compulsory hold days. So, Tamil Nadu being the automobile sector of the country, what is the impact on this sector? Yes. As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, it is the main hub of automobile industry of India. But as well as Pune, as well as Gurgaon, those areas also having a lot of automobile industry. In Gujarati, in Ahmedabad, a lot of automobile industry. Automobile, OEM, original equipment manufacturers are there in all these areas. In Northern India, in Western India, in Southern India, in Andhra Pradesh also it is there. And auto component manufacturers are there everywhere in India, everywhere. That is the small sector, micro, small, medium sector, MSME, you will call it. Those sector is spread all over India. And also the supporting industry for producing the auto component like foundry, steel manufacturing, tube manufacturing, drip manufacturing, all these industries are there, that is different. In Coimbatore, most of the industries like this, supporting industries are there in Coimbatore. In all these areas, there are loss of jobs taking place. There are closer of factories taking place. All non-permanent employees like Contrault, Apprentice, trainees have been sent out. That crosses 3 lakh, 4 lakh. According to the statement of the auto manufacturers association, auto component manufacturers association, they are selling already 3 lakh people lost their jobs. Further, there is a possibility of 7 lakh more people may be losing their jobs. This is in automobile sector alone. This figure may cross that limit, 10 lakh limit. That is my assessment, within 2-3 months it will take place. So far, the loss of job is non-permanent workers in this industry. But the permanent workers are affected by way of giving, lay-off or non-performing day. Non-performing day, as you said, it is not 2-3 days, it is more than that. Almost all the major OEM companies, original equipment manufacturers like Asocleron, like Daimler, like Nissan, Hyundai, Ford, every company has giving non-performing days than 3 days per week, that is, started. Permanent workers are being given non-performing day. They are starting that after sometime it will revive, the recovery will be there. Then you have to compensate all these days, they are saying, but they are paying salary. So, the pitch is not yet realized by the workers themselves because they are getting their salary. The permanent workers are getting their salary, they are not being sent out so far. That is one aspect. Second is the automobile manufacturing or any other manufacturing, component manufacturing, is relying on steel, mainly steel and tubes and plastic, raw materials and other things. All these companies are involved in producing all these things. More than 7000 spare parts are there in a car or in a vehicle. All these 7000 components are being produced by these many days of plastic. These companies have been laid off. For example, in Tamil Nadu there is one company, Tube Products of India, that is Murugappa Kulugam. And that factory now 3 days it is. As of now it is 3 days per week, they have laying it off. There are companies in Thiruthani, in some other places are there. All those companies have been nearly 3 days, 4 days, they are giving non-performing day. All permanent workers are already sent off. It is the status of Murugappa company, that is a big industrial thing. And then TVS, another major thing, they have been laid off, their workers in Lukas, in wheels, India and other areas. They are supplying, besides automobile industry, they are supplying some other areas also. Even those areas have been also affected because of the economic slowdown. So the TVS factories in Padi area, that is they are giving non-performing day for 3 days, 4 days like that. All permanent workers, really all permanent workers have been sent off. And then major industries like in Stripuramudu, using this, they are producing, they are selling. Now Nirmala Sitaraman last 23rd, they have announced some stimulus, these, that, 70,000 crore, these, that, many budgets he announced. In that, there is one aspect. That aspect is that, within 30 days, the main producer, the manufacturer should give the dues to the small, small owners, small company owners, entrepreneurs. That is one condition, see put. That shows, that says the real picture, that all these major companies are sucking the blood of the MSME companies. Because of that, the interest burden and many other burdens, because they have closed the show, they have sent people out. That is happening in all these areas. That shows, major producers, because of this slow down, they have cut down the production. So, by that, the demand from the manufacturers has been come down. So it affect the steel industry, it affect the tube industry, it affect the factory industry. That is one apart. The other area is dealers. The main manufacturers, like Hyundai and other, they get money from the dealers in advance. Using that money, they are producing cars and selling to the dealers. And also, they won't give the dues, real shares to them within a limited period, stipulated period like that. They also affected. There are lot of dealerships, big, big dealerships in Toyota, as you can see in Chennai and other, in rural areas also. More than, in my opinion, last week it is 263, it was appeared. But more than 400 dealership, big dealership, I am not saying small one. Big dealership have been closed. Stop, totally closed. In every dealership, there will be more than 200 people. If it is 400, you can count it nearly a lakh people lost their job in dealership also. The indirect is the mechanics, the mechanics. And then one major industry is tire industry, the automobile and other things. Tire industry, they go down, is overflowing. So they are not able to prove. All major tire companies all over India have given three days, four days, non-faceted compensation. What happened is that this slow down, this loss of income for lakh and lakh workers, stimulating the slow down further. That is the stimulating factor to make the slow down further sure is the loss of income. Those who are losing their job. This is the area where government is not able to see. They should see it in the perspective of the workers. Why the automobiles are not selling? Why? Nobody becomes Sanyasi Samyas. Everybody wants to buy car or other thing. It needs money. It needs money means either their own savings or by getting loan. The other area is ILFS thing because of that the non-banking companies are not able to give loan to the buyers. The liquidity is not there, several things are. All these complex situations created, created what can I say that it is not simply you can't call it as a slow down. Slowdown means it will come up again, immediate feature. The CEOs of all big companies, all our economic players, all are started talking. Never in my 20 years time, never this type of open statement from media and the CEOs are responding. They are reacting sharply that this is happening, this is happening, this is happening. But the government is trying to tell that nothing is there, don't worry. Like they are telling that I am afraid because of this government's inept attitude and other things. So the economic slow down is overall. It is not specific to automobile industry. It is overall. The main reason is that the purchasing power is not there. You see in the last two years alone, the IT sector in Chennai alone, in Tamil Nadu alone, they have sent more than 100,000 people out of job. The pathetic thing is that the biscuit producer like that, they started saying that even my 5 rupees biscuit is not selling. Three months back it was selling like this. Now it is not selling like that. So this is the pathetic thing. Even the inner wires, the inner wires. So they are saying that if inner wires selling has come down, that is the worst signal they are saying. That is happening, that is happening in India. So the problem is the purchasing power. The people should be given, they should be allowed to earn money, they should be given job. Or those who are doing self employment, they should be given proper attention. They should be given proper help. They are giving money to modis, they are giving money to big, big corporates. More than 10 lakh rupees they have spent in the last 3-4 years by way of tax consumption, by way of bank thing. All these things are being done for corporates. If these 10 lakh rupees have been spent for the remaining people other than corporates, Indian economy would have got boomed. See in the agricultural sector that is in the last 2-3 years continuously drought, flood and other things are there. Our agricultural production has been coming shortly. For the last 6 years they have not been given the supporting price. Supporting price is the one area where we can save agricultural. This government has not given that. They are cutting money. The money which is going to the common people, that money has been continuously cutting down by budget after budget. These monies were given by Manvang Singh government, the UPI government first. Take example, Mandrega that is 100 days work, that has been collapsed now. More than 50,000 crores will come to rural people by way of that wages. Now, already it was 75,000 crores, it has been come down to 50,000 crores, budgetary allotment itself only 50,000 crores. Now even that has not been spent regularly, in many areas people are not given that work. So if that money is not coming, immediately what it means, some several thousand crores of rupees are not coming to the hands of the people and it is not going to the market. Then that is the one reason for the market. If the farmers of India is being given the support price in the last 6 years, even it is 1% or 2%, that will be equal to 1 lakh crores rupees or 2 lakh crores rupees. That money, it will not go to Swiss bank, it will only come to the market. All these ways, all these things are blocked by this government's pro-corporate policy. So this is the main issue. More than 60, 70 crore people who are involved in agricultural sector is being neglected, that is one area. Second, MSME produces small entrepreneurs. Small entrepreneurs are the one area where they can save some money, they can buy a scooter, they can buy a car, they can buy a thing like that. They are in total doldrums. So all these things lead us to the slowdown.