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When it comes to delivering networks to support smart buildings and applications like CCTV, IPTV and Internet service delivery, there is no doubt that the near-limitless bandwidth of optical fiber is of benefit. What is less clear is whether an active, or passive technology is better. In reality, it depends on many factors including the environment, applications being used and who is going to manage or operate the infrastructure. Let’s look at this in a little more detail. History and background Active Ethernet or point to point Ethernet has been used extensively in a broad range of applications and environments for many years from the early days of 10Base2 to the current Ethernet technologies that utilize copper or optical fiber to deliver 1G, 10G and beyond. In order to deliver next generation services to consumers or subscribers, the aging twisted pair infrastructure that had been used for many years was simply not capable of meeting the bandwidth requirements of services like HDTV. Optical fiber with its near limitless bandwidth was therefore an easy choice. Using an active or point-to-point technology, however, would have seen thousands to tens of thousands of strands of optical fiber required from the exchange. Alternately, it would have been necessary to have active equipment in the field from where optical fiber had aggregated. Neither of these options was particularly suitable so an alternative technology known as Passive Optical Networks (PON) was developed. PON had the benefit of using small counts of optical fiber from the exchange and then branching out to deliver services to subscribers with passive splitters overcoming the limitations of active Ethernet for this application. Application and use There is no question that in a ‘broadacre’ environment – one covering large distances – PON has many benefits for the delivery of consumer services. These benefits, however, are questionable when it comes to delivering services in other environments such as buildings, commercial buildings or hospitality environments. Today the benefits of a single converged network to support all applications within a facility are better understood. The simplicity of managing one set of infrastructure, flexibility to add additional services, and lower total cost of ownership are now being seen by organizations that head down this path. With 20% of commercial buildings predicted to be smart or intelligent by 2020, this trend will only increase. The requirements of services that leverage a converged network are quite different to those of the consumer services seen in ‘broadacre’ environments. Services regularly deployed within commercial buildings include telephony, CCTV, signage, wayfinding, wireless, access control, BMS/ HVAC and lighting. These applications often require Powerover-Ethernet (PoE) to power the endpoint, multicast support to manage the distribution of content, symmetric bandwidth to support content moving in both directions, and a high degree of redundancy due to the critical nature of some services. These are inherent within active Ethernet networks but are not typical of passive networks. Technology aside, another factor to consider is ownership and operation of the network. Passive networks are typically deployed by a carrier or service provider who then takes complete responsibility for the infrastructure and service delivery. When adds, moves or changes are required, this is undertaken by the organization responsible. This is ideal for the delivery of services such as voice, data and telephony to consumers but is less than ideal for building services. Within commercial buildings there is often a need for the facility owner or manager to reconfigure the network to support new services or add new endpoints. This level of flexibility is simply not available when the network is operated or managed by a carrier or service provider and would generally incur additional costs. This would not occur with an active network that is managed by the facility. Summary So, when it comes to deploying optical fiber to support services, it is not simply a case of an active topology being better than a passive topology or vice versa. Consideration needs to be given to the environment and applications before a choice is made based on the requirements. In some cases, both can co-exist – a passive topology to deliver consumer services to residents which would be managed by a carrier, and an active topology for building services that would be managed by the facility.  By – Scott Penno Regional Marketing Manager, APAC, Allied Telesis  

Cost of a server is one of the major concerns while considering a multi-location video surveillance solution. Moreover, it is complex to operate a server from a central location while monitoring different locations. Matrix video surveillance solution has a special feature called Cascading, which eliminates the need of a server for centralized management and monitoring. Cascading is a feature of adding multiple devices on a single network in a user interface (UI) so that all devices can be accessed from one location. This is done by configuring one of the SATATYA devices as master device and the rest as slave devices. Cascading is configured in the monitor connected locally with the device, as well as in the Matrix SATATYA Device Client when the devices are connected on the same network. Network video recorders can cascade up to 20 devices and can receive their camera streams without the need of a server. The master NVR at the central location can receive streams from all the cameras installed at various locations. It follows the architecture of multiple masters and multiple slaves. Hence, one organization can make several master NVRs, sharing their respective camera streams among themselves. For example, a company having two CEOs at dif ferent locations can have access to all camera streams of their branches using their local NVR. Cameras are categorized into three different types in accordance to their configuration in Matrix network video recorders:  Branded cameras: The brand and model names of these devices are available in SATATAYA NVR database.  ONVIF supported cameras: Open Network Video Interface Forum defines a common protocol for exchange   of information like automatic device discovery, video streaming and intelligent metadata between network   video devices.  Generic cameras: These cameras stream the video on specific HTTP or RTSP URL. What are the Benefits? Cascading totally eliminates the cost of a server for centralized management and monitoring. There is no need to enter credentials and other settings every time the user restarts. It simplifies monitoring by grouping important cameras from different locations on a single screen. If the number of cameras is higher, it also allows sequencing of cameras. Applications Monitoring a building with multifloors. Monitoring multiple buildings with multiple floors. Monitoring multiple buildings at a single location. Monitoring multiple buildings at multiple locations. Monitoring multiple buildings with multiple central locations. Monitoring multiple buildings with a single central location.    

At recently held Axis Solutions Day 2018, Axis Communications, shared implementation details of their large-scale community CCTV Nenu Saitham project in Hyderabad City. The annual event showcased their integrated smart solutions in IP audio, retail suite and thermal cameras. Centered on the theme, The Future in Integrated Security Solutions, the event brought to fore Axis’ recent India success stories and their key takeaways from prestigious surveillance implementations across the country including the Mysore City Palace project. The Government of Telangana has been proactive in adopting a one-of-its kind smart surveillance implementation. With this community CCTV programme, the Hyderabad City Police is encouraging enterprises, public sectors, residential associations and individuals to invest in CCTVs procured from government empaneled firms. They will then setup a monitoring centre in their own colonies which in turn can be integrated with the nearest police stations and the central command center. This will track, monitor and analyse the video feed for detecting criminal activities, traffic violations and road conditions in real time. According to the project, an entity or individual can buy a CCTV system that will cover the premise entry, exit and parking areas to the extent of 50 yards on the road, along with storage and video screen for self-monitoring within the colony. The Government of Telangana will provide the back-end connectivity to the police stations, command control centre along with real-time video analytics. “Axis carries a rich lineage of over 35 years in India and during this time, we have understood the pulse of the India market. With an estimated budget of ₹2.09 lakh crores for smart city programmes by the Government, we are upbeat that high-end surveillance solutions are the need of the hour.” -Sudhindra Holla Sales Director – India and SAARC, Axis Communications Mahender Reddy, the Director General of Hyderabad Police asserted, “The impact of CCTV installations in Hyderabad City police jurisdiction has been astounding, leading to a huge reduction in overall crime rate by 32% in the last three years (2014-17) and reduction of 90.6% in chain-snatchings incidents during this period. Additionally, the Govt of Telangana is planning to install 15 lakh cameras across the state in the next three years.” Highlighting the efforts that led to the success of the Hyderabad implementation, Sudhindra Holla, Sales Director – India and SAARC, Axis Communications said, “We are proud to be a partner of choice for the Hyderabad community CCTV project. This is an example of community participation towards building a safer and secured smart city. We have 1,500 camera installations across the city to track, monitor and analyze the video feed for detecting criminal activities, traffic violations, and road conditions. With our strong portfolio of product line-up, we aim to support the authorities to deliver high surveillance and build a model smart city and eagerly look forward to the phase two implementation.” Speaking on the Mysore Palace implementation, Sudhindra emphasized, “The project was challenging as the site continued to operate even during the installation. Mysore Palace, being one of the most visited heritage sites of India, we had to ensure that the work was seamless with minimum disruption. We also had to create a multi-point wireless network to ensure the infrastructure had the ability to support new cameras as well as the management software across the area for crowd and queue management.” Axis ‘Smart’ security implementation not only provides a better quality of life with clean and sustainable environment, but also promises a safer city. Some of the major smart city implementations include Aurangabad, Bhavnagar, Kolhapur and Junagadh. In the retail and hospitality segments Axis smart implementation includes Café Coffee Day and Novotel Goa Shrem Hotels, respectively. One of the prominent installations in the education segment is Dayalbagh Educational Institute. Video surveillance has seen a paradigm shift in India with security becoming a priority for both the Government and enterprises. With an increase in the number of cyber-attacks which exposes vulnerabilities, dealing with well-resourced cybercriminals becomes a challenge. If left unaddressed, these could lead to networks being breached, ransomware to be planted or, be responsible for costly downtime. The answer is to be proactive and systematic for ensuring that patches are implemented as soon as they are available. Recording high-resolution videos with in-built compression is what today’s IP video surveillance capable of. There are multiple benefits of using IP-based surveillance to provide efficient security in the smart cities arena, like video analytics, environmental sensors, and support in law enforcement for departments to gather evidence during investigations. Further integrated, with IP Audio, it can be used to make scheduled or live announcements, and to track security violation in manufacturing/ industrial sites. On the other hand, thermal cameras using thermal imaging and enhanced low-light capabilities have taken the smart surveillance a step ahead. With built-in analytics, such as Video Motion Detection helps detect motion from moving objects within a predefined area, these intelligent solutions are useful for environments where privacy is of utmost importance like – schools and care homes.  

The private security industry is a crucial component of security and safety which is responsible for protecting not only critical infrastructure systems but also intellectual property and sensitive corporate information. Business establishments rely heavily on private security for a wide range of functions including protecting employees and property, site security, cash logistics operations, conducting investigations, providing information technology security, and many other functions. FICCI has recently organized the sixth edition of Private Security Industry Conclave (PSIC) 2018 with an objective to bring together experts from the government, industry, controlling authorities, user agencies and other stakeholders to discuss and debate various policy and regulatory issues concerning the private security industry. The theme of the event was ‘Job Creation and Skill Development in the Private Security Sector.’ The PSIC 2018 was inaugurated by Shiv Pratap Shukla, Minister of State for Finance, GoI, who also released a FICCI-BDO report on ‘Private Security Industry: Job Creation and Skill Development,’ which dwells upon the skill development and jobs creation, policy issues, GST implication and its impact, shift from the unorganised to organised sector, and the need of integration of manpower and technology. Cmdr. Gautam Nanda (Retd.), Associate Partner, BDO India, the knowledge partner for the conclave, gave an overview of the industry, underlining the vital roles of PSI in skill development and job creation. He said that the industry was the largest employer with 8.9 million personnel with a potential to employ 3.1 million more by 2022. The estimated market size of the industry was Rs.57,000 crore and was expected to rise to Rs.1.5 lakh crore by 2022. Goods & Services Tax Issue Amongst various others, the issue of Goods and Services Tax (GST) imposition on the private security industry was strongly raised on the forum. The FICCI Committee on Private Security Industry sought relief in GST for PSI and put forth three options to resolve the issue. Impose GST only on the service charge, not on total invoice value (18% GST on 10% of invoice value): Private security sector operates on a cost plus pricing model. Bases for the calculation of per head cost are the applicable minimum wage, and statutory obligations like PF, ESIC, leave, bonus, gratuity etc. The agencies charge 10% or less as their service charge on above mentioned cost structure. Therefore, charging GST on invoice value results in taxing statutory payments. With the payment cycle of 90-180 days, this leads to significant cash flow pressure and even risk of default on statutory compliances. Charging GST on 10% of invoice value would not only enhance compliance but also ease pressure on thousands of MSME entities in private security sector Shift obligation to discharge GST to the recipient of service: Shifting of GST compliance obligation from PSAs to the service users would significantly ease cash flow pressure and risk of default under high interest burden. The change will also lead to timely GST compliance and eliminate possibility of leakage of revenue for the government. Reduce GST rate from 18% to 5%: Private security has emerged as an essential service to support the government machinery in homeland security activities. With reduction in the GST tax rate from 18% to 5%, pressure from customers on manpower reduction is likely to ease significantly resulting in job protection for private security guards. Lower GST rate is also likely to boost volume of work orders, thereby paving the way for demand expansion and resultant increase in skill development activities, as well as employment generation by private security sector. The minister assured that the Finance Ministry is actively considering FICCI’s recommendations to reduce the GST rate to minimise its impact on the industry and capitalise on its job-creation potential. He said that the government acknowledges the contributions of the private security industry in creating jobs for the poor, ex-servicemen and those who have migrated from villages, and promised that he would do the best possible to reduce the tax. He invited a FICCI delegation to his office to discuss and take the matter further. Rituraj Sinha, Chair of the FICCI Committee on Private Security Industry pointed out that based on the Committee’s discussions with the Finance Minister and the MoS for Finance, there is a conviction and genuine intent on the part of the government to give GST relief to the industry. Such relief would greatly benefit the small players who have to bear the burden of interest costs, as they have to borrow to deposit GST in advance. The Co-Chair of FICCI Committee on PSI & Chairman, Peregrine Guarding, Maj. Manjit Rajain (Retd.) also expressed optimism towards the serious inclination on the part of the government to give GST relief to PSI. Skill Development & RPL issue At the forum of PSIC 2018, seventeen MoUs were signed between the Management and Entrepreneurship & Professional Skills Council (MEPSC) and private security companies to impart training to over 3.17 lakhs security guards under the government’s ‘Recognition of Prior Learning’ (RPL) scheme. Addressing the gathering of security professionals Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, GoI, said that skilling of manpower is critical for private security industry which is growing at an annual rate of 20-25 per cent. The industry must partner with the government in skilling, reskilling and upskilling of the workforce in order to meet the challenges of new RPL 4.0. He further said that there is a need to make the economy more formal. In other developed countries, skilling, reskilling and upskilling are the jobs of the industry, and the respective governments undergo partnership with the private sector for this purpose. Government of India has shown conviction in the industry and hence has changed the policy to RPL 4.0. There is a need to increase the employable workforce in the country and bring them under the skilling ecosystem. On the occasion, the Minister also felicitated controlling authority of NCT of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana for the best practices in the proper enforcement and implementation of PSARA under various categories. Himachal Pradesh was given the…

PSI Intruder Product of the Year Pyronix Enforcer with Hikvision integration has recently won the PSI Intruder Product of the Year 2018 Award for the second consecutive year in a row. “Winning the Intruder Product of the Year is a great accolade, but to have won it for two years consecutively is such a fantastic achievement,” said Laurence Kenny, Marketing Manager, Pyronix, “We are extremely pleased that the Enforcer has once again been recognized as the market-leading intruder product by the installers. We are very proud and appreciative for this.” Since winning the award in 2017, many developments have been made that have contributed to this success, including the addition of ProControl+, Hik-Connect and Hikvision’s iVMS-4200 integration. These add great value to the Enforcer allowing installers to extend their offerings, compete in new markets, remain competitive, and provide new and desired solutions to end users in a converging industry. Now, installers can offer the best of both worlds in one solution – market-leading intrusion and video combined in one Enforcer system. PSI CCTV Product of the Year Hikvision also won the PSI Premier ‘CCTV Product of The Year’ Awards 2018 for the third year in a row. The honoured Hikvision product was the PanoVu mini-series IR network PTZ camera (DS-2PT3326IZ-DE3), which integrates four cameras into one to provide both panoramic video images for general observation or detection and closeups of any areas where more detail is required. The Hikvision DS-2PT3326IZ-DE3 was chosen by PSI readers – mostly surveillance systems designers and installers – who voted on the PSI website. With more than 1,000 surveillance professionals voting each year, PSI’s CCTV Product of the Year category is strongly contested, making Hikvision’s achievement even more gratifying. Gary Harmer, Sales Director for Hikvision UK & Ireland said, “Thanks to everyone who voted for Hikvision, and to PSI for running and hosting the awards. We’re constantly innovating to create surveillance products that provide installers and end customers high performance, industry leading features, and excellent value for money. With a keen balance of wide-angle video, close-up footage, and 3D positioning, the DS-2PT3326IZ-DE3 offers all of these benefits – a fact that was recognised by PSI’s readers this year.” The features behind the award The DS-2PT3326IZ-DE3 offers a range of innovative technology features that are likely to have appealed to PSI’s informed readership. These include 3x fixed lenses that capture panoramic views and 1x central PTZ for capturing more zoomed in views, which collectively support both wide-angle and close-up video. All cameras that are integrated into the product feature crystal-clear video imaging. In addition to these features, the Hikvision DS2PT3326IZ-DE3 provides a range of industry leading security features that installers and customers value. These include user authentication and IP address filtering, and protection against voltage surges. Finally, but of equal importance, the Hikvision DS2PT3326IZ-DE3 supports highly efficient audio and video compression. This helps customers minimize their data transmission and storage costs, and lower their overall OPEX. PSI is an industry-leading professional security magazine based in the UK, which annually hosts its PSI Premier Awards. This year the event was attended by Ray Parlour, the former England and Arsenal midfielder. The PSI Premier Awards ask industry professionals to nominate and vote for the solutions which catch the attention of the market. By allowing installers to vote for their favourite products and determine the winner, makes it a highly coveted accolade in the industry.  

The Ministry of Home Affairs, GoI has recently launched a website www.psara.gov.in on the Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act 2005, which regulates the private security sector in India. The objective of the portal is to enable individuals, and public and private offices to easily access the provisions of the Act and know whether a particular agency has a valid license. This portal will help enhance the enforcement of licensing provisions and effectively curb the existence of unlicensed agencies. This will also help in improving compliance relating to the verification of antecedents of the employees of these agencies. This website makes it convenient for the general public to access the Private Security Agency (Regulation) Act, 2005 and Private Security Agencies Central Model Rules along with various instructions/ clarifications issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs time to time. It carries information in regards to the Controlling Authorities, licensed agencies, agencies whose licenses have been cancelled and the reasons thereof, model rules framed under the Act by the states/ UTs, details of valid training institutions, and other related information. Prospective entrepreneurs, who intend to set up an agency in this sector, can extract details of their relevance from the website and act accordingly. The portal was launched in a meeting presided over by Rajiv Gauba, Union Home Secretary. Other dignitaries present there were Vivek Bharadwaj, IAS, Joint Secretary (PM), MHA who briefed the Home Secretary about the various issues being faced by the Controlling Authorities and PSAs, Kunwar Vikram Singh, Chairman, CAPSI who made a brief presentation on the size, growth and issues of the private security sector, along with Mahesh Sharma, Secretary General, Jasbir Wasu, and Anil Puri, Vice Presidents, CAPSI.  

The Court of Hon’ble Justice Vibhu Bakhru upheld that the communication issued by National Skill Develop Corporation (NSDC) on 9 January 2018 to the AXIS Bank directing it to freeze the bank accounts of the petitioner i.e., Security Sector Skill Development Council (SSSDC), was plainly without any authority of law and accordingly that has been set aside. The Court asked Abhinav Vashisht, the senior counsel appearing for NSDC, to indicate any provision of law that authorises his client to take such action. Mr Vashisht contended that as the petitioner was diverting the funds, and the action was taken in pursuant to the direction issued by the Government of India, it was justified. However, he was unable to cite any provision of law which authorises the Corporation to direct the bank to freeze the accounts. The principal reason for NSDC to have taken the said action stems from an allegation that the petitioner had diverted the grant given by the Government of India. SSSDC does agree that the grant was provided to them some years ago, however, they also confirm that it was fully utilised for the purpose it was given for. At the given stage, the Court didn’t consider whether the allegations made were correct or not; it just examined whether NSDC had any authority in law to direct freezing of the bank accounts of any other entity. The court, however, clarified that the order does not preclude the Corporation from initiating any action in accordance with the law including for recovering any amount, which as it claims is recoverable from the petitioner. On the other hand, the court also reserved all rights of SSSDC including their right to pursue remedies in respect to other prayers which were not processed at the stage. A notice issued by the Court in this connection was accepted by the counsel of respondents. Earlier, SSSDC filed the petition, inter alia, praying as under: a. Issue an appropriate writ of Mandamus and/ or such other appropriate writ, order or direction quashing and setting aside the impugned order dated 05.01.2018 and 09.01.2018 issued by the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship; and/or b. Issue an appropriate writ of Mandamus and/ or such other appropriate writ, order or direction quashing and setting aside the impugned order 09.01.2018 passed by NSDC. Arvind Datar, the senior counsel appearing for SSSDC, however, restricted the relief in the present petition to the second prayer by which SSSDC challenged the NSDC order whereby they had directed AXIS Bank to freeze the bank accounts of SSSDC. Vaibhav Gaggar, Partner, Gaggar & Partners, who represented SSSDC in the High Court Commented, “The way the proceedings went and the judgment of the Hon’ble court showed in no uncertain terms that certain bodies are clearly targeting the SSSDC and are willing to resort to means which are well beyond their powers under law in order to hurt them. It was inconceivable as to how the bodies concerned were able to get the bank to freeze accounts of SSSDC without following any law whatsoever. The judgment should go a long way in eradicating the arbitrary and strong arm measures which are sought to be resorted to by the concerned parties.”  

During the recently held FICCI – PSIC 2018 (3 August 2018), seventeen security guard agencies showed their commitment and came forward to sign MoUs with the Management and Entrepreneurship & Professional Skills Council (MEPSC) to impart training to over 3.17 lakh  security guards under the government’s ‘Recognition of Prior Learning’ (RPL) scheme. The companies included SIS India, G4S, Peregrine, Checkmate, NISA, SMS Security, Orion, Terrier, Raxa-GMR and so on. Addressing a gathering of over 300 security professionals at the ‘Private Security Industry Conclave, Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, GoI, said that the skilling of manpower is critical for private security industry which is growing at an annual rate of 20-25 percent. The industry must partner with the government in skilling, reskilling and upskilling of the workforce in order to meet the challenges of new RPL 4.0. “Glad that a MoU has been signed between the private security companies and the Management & Entrepreneurship and Professional Skills Council to train and certify over 3 Lakh personnel under Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in the Private Security Industry.”   – Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, GoI   He further said that there is a need to make the economy more formal. In other developed countries, skilling, reskilling and upskilling are the jobs of the industry, and the respective governments undergo partnership with the private sector for this purpose. The government of India has shown conviction in the industry and hence it has changed the policy to RPL 4.0. There is a need to increase the employable workforce in the country and bring them under the skilling ecosystem. “There’s a long list of things that we want the government to look into – skill is one of them. Apart from construction and logistics, the private security industry is among the top five sectors to create jobs in the country,” said Rituraj Sinha, the Chair, FICCI Committee of Private Security Industry, and Managing Director, SIS Group, “The sector has about 53 million security personnel registered with the government’s provident fund scheme.” Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is a key element under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) which aims to impart skill based training to one crore people between 2016 – 2020. There is a large section of India’s unorganized workforce that is unskilled and semi-skilled who generally pick up skills and knowledge in an informal set up by observing people or working under their guidance or through complete self-learning. Even if they manage to get a job they may not be able to improve their skills. This also affects their productivity and quality of output. They need access to training programs and support from their employers to skill and upskill themselves. Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is meant to help such workforce who get assessed, trained, and certified on their current competencies as per the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) levels. RPL also shows them a path to bridge their current knowledge and skill levels to reach a competency level or go for higher skills for professional growth. The RPL certification would be at par with the certifications awarded by various skill training programs in the country.  

While inaugurating the FICCI – Private Security Industry Conclave on 3 August 2018, Shiv Pratap Shukla, Minister of State for Finance, GoI, assured the private security industry that the Finance Ministry is actively considering FICCI’s recommendations to reduce the GST rate levied on the private security agencies to minimise its impact on the industry and capitalise on its job-creation potential. FICCI organized its annual event PSIC – 2018 on the theme of – ‘Job Creation & Skill Development.’ “There is a merit in the demand for reduction of GST rate to 5% as this industry generates about 5 lakh jobs yearly. Moreover, security is no longer a luxury but a basic essential for the citizens of the country. If we aim to cultivate a strong economy, the basic entitlements of  the citizens cannot be compromised. ” – Rituraj Sinha The Chair of FICCI Committee on Private Security Industry, & Group MD, SIS Group Mr. Shukla said that the government acknowledges the contributions of the private security industry in creating jobs for the poor, ex-servicemen and those who have migrated from villages, and promised that he would do the best possible to reduce the tax. He invited a FICCI delegation to his office to discuss and take the matter further. Mr. Shukla also released a FICCI-BDO Report relating to PSI that dwells upon the skill development and jobs creation, policy issues, GST implication and its impact, shift from the unorganized to organized sector, and the need of integration of manpower and technology. Since its inception, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been a major impediment for the Private Security Industry in India which is one of the largest employment generating industries of the country. At the PSIC 2018, the FICCI Private Security Committee, which has been in consistent pursuit with the government on GST, reiterated the issue and sought a roll down of the GST rate from 18% to 5% slab. Rituraj Sinha, the Chair of FICCI Committee on Private Security Industry, and Group MD, SIS Group pointed out that there is a merit in the demand for reduction of GST rate to 5% as this industry generates about 5 lakh jobs yearly. Moreover, security is no longer a luxury but a basic essential for the citizens of the country. If we aim to cultivate a strong economy, the basic entitlements of the citizens cannot be compromised. Private Security has emerged as an essential service to support the government machinery in homeland security activities. With a reduction in tax, pressure from customers on manpower reduction is likely to ease significantly and that will result in job protection for private security guards. A lower rate is also likely to boost the volume of work orders, thereby paving way for demand expansion, and the resultant increase in skill development activities as well as employment generation by the private security sector Mr. Sinha clarified that they find a genuine intent on the part of the government to pass GST relief to the industry that would benefit the small players as well who are bearing an additional burden of the cost of interests on the amount of GST that they borrow to pay the levy in advance. Major Manjit Rajain (Retd.), Co-Chair of FICCI Committee on PSI & Chairman, Peregrine Guarding, was also optimistic about the serious inclination on the part of the government to give GST relief to PSI. Sandip Somany, Senior Vice President of FICCI, and Vice Chairman and MD, HSIL Ltd. opined that the private security agencies are mainly SME segments that operate on very thin margins. It is challenging for them to cope with the requirements of the GST compliances, as the high GST rate of 18% has imbalanced their cash-flows. FICCI’s recommendations on GST relief are pending with the government from the past few months.  

 Implementation of the ‘Reverse Charge Mechanism’ for the payment of GST demanded to save the interests of the industry Under the aegis of CAPSI, huge gatherings of owners and employees of the private security industry across the country staged nationwide peaceful protests on 18 July 2018 against the existing modus of GST rules which in principle, largely goes in contradiction to the business module of the industry, and has brought various security agencies to the verge of closure owing to the imposed unwarranted financial burden. The major impediment stems from the fact that GST is due to be deposited every month without fail while agencies receive payments for their respective services after 60 to 90 days. They demanded immediate implementation of the ‘Reverse Charge Mechanism’ whereby the payment of GST is done to the government directly by the recipients of the security services and not by the private security agencies, the service provider. This mechanism hardly impacts the revenue collection of the government. “ The private security industry is one of the largest job providers employing over 80 lakh people, mostly retired personnel from the armed forces and the para-military forces. Most of the security guards come from the rural and economically poor backgrounds. Any government decision resulting in the closure of even one average security agency could mean unemployment to a large number of security guards causing large scale unemployment in the rural sector.” – Kunwar Vikram Singh , Chairman, CAPSI The Delhi Chapter of CAPSI held their protest at the India Gate where hundreds of security professionals gathered in black T-shirts to support the cause. The Chairman of CAPSI, Kunwar Vikram Singh was also present there. They showed their respect to the martyrs by laying the wreath at the Amar Jawan Jyoti before the protest. “During the last six months, we have raised this issue with the government at various levels to highlight problems being faced by the industry. We made representations to the Ministry of Finance, the GST Commissioner, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), and the MSME and so on, demanding the streamlining of the GST mechanism for our industry; but no viable solutions have come forth leaving CAPSI with no other option than to hold a protest. The major issue which forces owners to close their companies is the methodology of depositing GST. The GST regulations mandate the security agencies to deposit tax on the 20th of every month when bills are raised; however, the payments against these bills are received after 60 to 90 days, or even more. This gap impacts the cash flows of our low-margin industry badly causing us to carry huge back-breaking burdens,” said Kunwar Vikram Singh, “The logical remedy to this problem is the introduction of the ‘Reverse Charge Mechanism,’ whereby the principal employer (to whom the security guards are outsourced) pay GST on due date and claim its refund later. This will reduce the financial burden on the owners of the private security agencies.” “Security service industry essentially recruits, trains, and then provides jobs to the trained manpower; which along with other statutory costs constitute about 90% of our billing amount. Our margin ranges up to 5% only. TDS at the rate of 2% of the billing amount further erodes the margins. Low margins coupled with delays in payments create a huge pressure on the cash flows in the industry. Most of the players often find it extremely difficult to pay even wages on time, besides to comply with the statuary requirements of depositing dues like PF and ESI. Under such circumstances the additional burden of GST is unbearable. The implementation of the ‘Reverse Charge Mechanism’ in GST is the only way out,” Mr. Singh concludes. The protest saw an active involvement of APDI as well.