New Delhi, Mar 9 (KNN) The RBI Expert Committee on Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) met apex industry bodies FICCI and FISME in New Delhi to review the institutional set-up and credit related issues.

The Committee headed by U.K. Sinha, former SEBI Chairman, was set up in December last year by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das after rising concerns of MSME NPAs.

“The terms of the committee are kept broad to allow a comprehensive discussion on MSME issues from the point of view of survival, growth and credit support”, told Chairman U.K. Sinha in his opening remarks and encouraged .

In a detailed presentation former FISME President V.K. Agarwal and Secretary General Anil Bhardwaj drew attention of the Committee on the adverse impact of external factors such as infrastructure, finance, administration and trade barriers besides the internal unit level issues.  

According to V.K. Agarwal, there was a need to acknowledge the heterogeneity of the MSME sector and treat its segments like Micro, Small and Medium differently as they had very different financial needs.

“Time is the most precious factor in access to credit but is least appreciated by Bankers while dealing with MSMEs”, he said.

FISME has been of the view that technology should be fully leverage in expediting the decision making process and informing borrowers and delivering financial products in real time.

It also strongly advocated reorientation of SIDBI as development bank to facilitate creation of myriad number of institutions needed to address emerging credit needs of the MSMEs.

‘There is no need for SIDBI to get struck with institutions it created like CGTMSE. They should promote, not run institutions themselves and even if they have to drive them initially, they should get out as soon as possible so that they could focus on other unaddressed areas’, said Anil Bhardwaj.  

FISME representation included suggestions ranging from access to affordable commercial/ industrial space, electricity to difficulties with Companies Act and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.  

The RBI Committee is expected to submit its report by June 2019. Besides the Chairman Sinha, the committee includes Ram Mohan Mishra, Development Commissioner MSME and Pankaj Jain, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance , P. K. Gupta Managing Director of SBI, Anup Bagchi, Executive Director, ICICI Bank; Abhiman Das, Professor, IIM-Ahmedabad; Sharad Sharma, Co-Founder, iSPIRT Foundation and Bindu Ananth, Chair, Dvara Trust. (KNN Bureau)