New Delhi, Feb 25 (KNN) Despite the fact that lots of people criticised Goods and Service Tax (GST) for the way it was implemented, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across the country termed it as the single biggest reform that has made the business environment better, according to a recent survey released by the India SME Forum.

Nearly 62.13% of MSMEs surveyed, termed GST as the single biggest reform or that it made running business easier, though 9% of MSMEs said that more work is needed to implement GST, said survey report on state of MSME in India.

Only 28% of MSMEs held introduction of GST responsible for MSMEs going out of business or for GST making business tougher for MSMEs.

States where MSMEs have been highly positive about GST are Uttar Pradesh with 77.49%, Delhi with 77.25%, Haryana with 70.49%, Maharashtra with 69.40%, Madhya Pradesh with 69.13%, Andhra Pradesh with 69.08%, Kerala with 67.88%, Rajasthan with 66.92% and Tamil Nadu with 65.03%.

On the other hand, states including Gujarat with 44.07%, Jharkhand with 46.69% and West Bengal with 46.19% show the least number of MSMEs calling GST a positive move for MSMEs.

On the issue of demonetisation in November 2016, the survey revealed that an average of 58% of MSMEs across India, agreed with the contention that the move probably led to negative growth for MSMEs in India, whereas 20% were not sure.

However, 22% of those surveyed strongly felt that there was no such possibility of demonetisation effecting MSME growth.

According to 78.80% of MSMEs surveyed from Uttarakhand, 67% from West Bengal,65.93% from J&K,  64.53% from Odisha, 64.80% from Himachal Pradesh, 64.47% from Maharashtra, 63.48% from Bihar, 60.29% from Telangana and 60.13% from Assam, demonetisation probably led to negative growth for MSMEs. 

The data revealed that 66.58% of MSMEs surveyed collectively hired an additional 2,46,416 people, in the 18 months from April 2017 to September 2018 at an average of 9.776 jobs per MSME unit.

Also, MSMEs surveyed gave a big thumbs up to the work of the Central Government headed by the Prime Minister Narendar Modi.

The survey revealed that 59.56% of MSMEs rated the MSME ecosystem better than earlier, while 28% felt that it was worse than earlier, and 12.21% felt no change at all.

States where large numbers of MSMEs perceived positive change due to central government initiatives are Uttar Pradesh (72.72%), Maharashtra (67.79%) and Delhi (66.05%). (KNN/YV)