New Delhi, Jan 31 (KNN) The Economic Survey 2019-20 tabled by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today, states that 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 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 of India, Narendra Modi on November 2, 2018, announced key reforms for faster growth of this sector.

The Economic Survey states that the government gave 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.

Government also announced 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 have to now mandatorily onboard 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) have been asked 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, states the Economic Survey.

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, highlights the Economy Survey.

After the CPSUs were mandatorily asked to procure through GeM portal, as many as 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.

The Economic Survey mentions that as many as 20 Technology Centres (TCs) and 100 Extension Centres (ECs) will be established at the cost of Rs 6,000 crore.

As many as 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 will bear 70 per cent of the cost for establishing pharma cluster, said the Economy Survey adding that four districts of Solan, Indore, Aurangabad and Pune have been selected for pharma clusters and developing of common facilities.

For ease of doing business, returns under eight labour laws and 10 Union Regulations are to be filed once a year.

For EODB, Inspections of establishments are now decided through a computerized random allotment.  3,080 inspections have been conducted and all inspection reports have been uploaded on Shram Suvidha portal. (KNN Bureau)

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