By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JAN 31, 2020: THE Government is committed to support the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) which is an important sector of the Indian economy that fosters entrepreneurship and generates employment opportunities at lower capital cost.

The Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Economic Survey 2019-20 in Parliament today.  The Economic Survey gave a detailed analysis of all the measures undertaken to support the MSME sector in India to ensure better credit flow, technology up-gradation, ease of doing business and market access.

The Prime Minister had announced key reforms for faster growth of this sector.  The initiatives and the status of these initiatives are :

In-principle approval for loans up to Rs.1 crore within 59 minutes through on-line portal.  1,59,422 number of loans have been sanctioned involving Rs.49,330 crore.  Of this, Rs.37,106 crore have been disbursed upto October 2019.

Interest subvention of 2 per cent for all GST registered MSMEs on incremental credit upto Rs.1 crore. SIDBI has received and settled claim of Rs.18 crore from 43 banks/NBFCs for the period from November 2018 to March 2019.

All companies with a turnover more than Rs.500 crore to be mandatorily on TReDS platform to enable entrepreneurs to access credit from banks.  So far 329 companies have registered themselves on the TReDS portal.

All Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) to compulsorily procure at least 25 per cent of their total purchases from MSMEs.  CPSUs have procured goods and services worth Rs. 15,936.39 crore from 59,903 MSMEs.

Out of the 25 per cent procurement mandated from MSMEs 3 per cent is reserved for women entrepreneurs.  During 2019-20, procurement has been done from 1,471 women owned MSMEs to the tune of Rs.242.12 crore.

All CPSUs  must mandatorily procure through GeM portal. 258 CPSUs/CPSVs have been on boarded/registered on the GeM portal and a total of 57,351 MSME sellers and service providers have been registered on the portal.

20 Technology Centres (TCs) and 100 Extension Centres (ECs) to be established at the cost of Rs.6,000 crore.  Rs.99.30 crore have been released for  setting up of these TCs and ECs.  Ten more ECs have been planned in FY 2019-20.

The Government to bear 70 per cent of the cost for establishing pharma cluster. Four districts of Solan, Indore, Aurangabad and Pune have been selected for pharma clusters and developing of common facilities.

Returns under eight labour laws and 10 Union Regulations to be filed once  a year.

Establishments to be visited by an Inspector will be decided through a computerized random allotment.  3,080 inspections have been conducted and all inspection reports have been uploaded on Shram Suvidha portal.