Gandhinagar, Mar 18 (KNN) By end of April this year, Gujarat government is planning to have a separate Commissionerate for MSMEs.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, while addressing the executive committee meeting of FICCI at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar on Friday, “I believe that by end of April we will begin a separate MSME Commissionerate.”

Currently the MSME sector is under Industries Commissionerate of the state, which had begun an MSME Facilitation Desk in February, 2016, to assist the small and medium players in setting up business units.

There are over five lakh Micro, Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (MSMEs) in Gujarat while around 1.5 lakh units have been reported sick in the last four years.

Rupani emphasised on how the MSME sector accounted for as many as 18,000 of a total of 25,000 Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) inked during the latest edition of Vibrant Gujarat Summit, held in January.

“We have made a provision of Rs 1,000 crore for MSMEs in our 2017-18 budget,” Rupani said.

On transfer of subsidies to the MSME units, he said the software for implementing a single window system for this was also in its final stage. “It will ensure that subsidies meant for the MSME sector are transferred directly to the units. We are working towards ensuring complete transparency,” said Rupani

On Gujarat coming down to third position in “ease of doing business” ranking in India, Rupani said “We will be back on top by next year.”