Wipro’s Payment Delay Hits Chennai-Based SME Hard

What’s in IT? Well, IT (information technology) makes an organisation efficient.  Is it really so? Ask S Aruldass, managing director of the Chennai-based EAFS which was established in 1992. The company is a leading IT-Enabled Infrastructure & Engineering solution provider and project specialist in the design and building of Data centers & Network Solutions. Over eight summers have gone by and yet, this Chennai-based entrepreneur is at his wit’s end to recover the money for the services rendered by his company to Bengaluru-based IT major Wipro.  After selling off his multi-cuisine restaurant (Noodle Kings), he founded EAFS to provide power and control solutions to corporations. It isn’t easy to be an MSME (micro, small and medium enterprise) organisation. He is acutely aware of this. But, he hasn’t bargained for an IT giant like Wipro to delay payment for services rendered several years ago! Constant churning of people in Wipro has only worsened his predicament.  The IT age appears to have pushed the inter-personal relationship to a faceless computer interface.  This is indeed causing avoidable hurt for smaller ones like EAFS. Non-receipt of payment, however, does not entitle EAFS to hold back on GST payments.  The cumulative weight caused by non-receipt of payment from Wipro has cast a huge burden on him and his company. What is small for some may prove to be big for some others. Is Wipro listening?