The valuation of stressed assets will not come down due to a ban on promoters bidding for such assets, JSW Steel Joint Managing Director Seshagiri Rao said.

Speaking on the sidelines of a CII conference on ‘Re-inventing Indian Manufacturing’, Seshagiri Rao, Joint Managing Director, JSW Steel, said some of the promoters of such stressed assets have lost the opportunity to turnaround their business.

Giving them an opportunity will only make them bid aggressively to keep genuine buyers at bay, he said. He also said the amendment passed in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code does not bar global steel companies from bidding for the stressed asset even if they have defaulted on loans in their own country.

GST Challenge

The GST has squeezed out liquidity from the economy and banks are not lending to the SME sector even after re-capitalisation. The e-way bill to transport goods from one State to another has been posing a major challenge, said Rao. Manufacturers have to compulsorily move goods 100 km in one day and if there is any delay then they have to re-register for a new e-way bill.

“Now a days, vehicles are not stopped at the State borders but at every nook and corner inside the State for checking e-way bill. This is a major challenge,” he said.

Most of the large corporates have stopped buying goods and services from small and medium enterprises which are not GST registered as the buyers will be responsible for seller’s GST under the reverse charge mechanism, he said.

Moreover, he said there has been delay in receiving refund of taxes paid on exported goods.

Earlier speaking at the conference, Suresh Prabhu, Commerce & Industry Minister, said the industry should set a timeline to achieve $1 trillion in manufacturing revenue and take its share in GDP to 20 per cent.

“The government aims to increase the share of manufacturing in GDP to 20 per cent. Without a number it is not possible for the industry to prepare a roadmap for achieving this milestone,” he said.

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