India – Recruitment firms call for simplified procedures

By memberservices@staffingindustry.com (Danny Romero)

Staffing firms in India are calling for simplified procedures to operate in the country.

“We need just one licence to operate staffing business and just one return per licence; simplified documentation,” Rituparna Chakraborty, President, Indian Staffing Federation told the Hindu Business Line while speaking about the budget expectations of the recruitment industry.

Chakraborty said that granting state or nationwide licences should be based on nationwide presence, registration under Companies Act and social security registrations. She also stated that licensing will also make it possible for the corporates to work with regulated staffing companies, reducing administrative hassles.

According to Ravi Vishwanathan, Chief Financial Officer, of staffing firm Team Lease, companies currently have over 25 different registrations to grapple with and suggested that the process of application, issuance and renewal of these numbers breeds inefficiency, corruption and waste.

“Low-wage employees are subject to labour laws that require a mandatory 45% payroll deduction from their cost-to-company while high-wage employees are only subject to a 9% deduction. Benefits are important but salary belongs to employees, who should be allowed to decide for themselves whether they want to make their employee contribution to Provident Fund; to Provident Fund Authority of the New Pension Scheme or pay health insurance premiums to ESI Corporation or buy private health insurance,” Vishwanathan said.

Amitabh Jaipuria, President & CEO, Global Services, Quess Corp Ltd said that skill building and job creation should be the primary focus for the current government.

“We expect that significant incentives and steps to encourage companies to accelerate their pace of hiring will form important aspects of this budget,” Jaipuria said.

Source:: India – Recruitment firms call for simplified procedures