Budget Wish List: Focus On Private Security Industry

The security industry has for long been one of the largest employers in India, providing wage basis employment to over one crore people in the country, which is expected to see a further increase in the coming year. With the growing number of businesses contributing to the Indian economy, the need for security against events of theft, accidents of fire and other such exigencies, has increased subsequently and substantionally. Establishing security persons and systems in public places like ATMs, metro and railway stations, shopping malls, private stores, residential complexes, and other business offices has always been necessary. With the ongoing dynamic situation with Covid 19,this need has grown manifold.  

During the lockdown periods of the pandemic, the private security industry, listed as an essential services sector, played an important role in ensuring smooth operations and security. Across all states, the private security workers supported and complimented the city governing bodies to ensure safety, peace and calm during these trying times.  

Being a traditionally unorganized sector in the country, PSI is moving towards a more organized one by providing systematic skill development to workers. A need and subsequent demand for professional, skilled guards has led to workers having to undergo training, to receive certification for conducting the job at hand. However we look forward for the government to offer more information on the guidelines for carrying out such training in a standardised manner across the industry. We hope The Budget to be able to distinctly state and provide clarity under the Private Security Agencies Regulations Act (PSARA) and declare a uniform, minimum standard of training to be met across all security companies. Compensation for overtime and benefits included in salary packages for these trained workers must also be clarified in the budget. 

Given that most of the workforce is constituted by migrant workers, it is of utmost importance that we express our gratitude and support to them. To pay wages to all workers across the different sectors of the industry, we request banks to provide us with the required capital essential for paying said wages. It would also be very beneficial if an extension could be granted on capital credit lines while prioritizing the PSI. 

A decrease in the high GST rate of 18% on PSAs will reduce the pressure on the industry immensely as we have seen several members of the industry perish due to this. Moreover, a collection delay of 4-5 months for GST would be helpful as upfront tax payment based on invoice raising poses many problems in our industry. Without the required working capital, complying to the norms of GST submission becomes extremely pressurizing and disturbs timely payment of salaries to our essential workers.

The private security industry collectively has these expectations from the Union Budget 2022-2023. We are hopeful towards a favourable outcome to better serve the millions of workers associated with our industry. Apart from this, generation of employment for all those who lost their means of livelihood could get a big head start with necessary modifications to our industry being a primary employer of scale in India.