New Delhi, Dec 12 (KNN) Amidst the economic slowdown and in the run to the Union Budget,  a delegation of Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) met Union Minister of MSME Nitin Gadkari in the national capital along with Rajendra Agrawal, Member of Parliament from Meerut. A memo of demands and suggestions was handed to the Minister. 

FISME delegation was led by Dr. Animesh Saxena, President, FISME and accompanied by two Past Presidents- Dinesh Singhal and Neeraj Kedia along with the Secretary General Anil Bhardwaj. 

FISME spelled out long term reforms to induce competitiveness which included need to review and shrink role of Government as Conglomerate or as business person procuring and supplying large number of goods and services. 

It stressed that defective commercial practices of Government as Conglomerate were burdening the entire economic activity with higher costs and uncertainties affecting competitiveness. 

The Memo also highlighted how MSMEs were being crowded out from Public Procurement through unfair trade practices such as Bundling of orders and awarding turn-key projects to just a few extremely large players. 

On the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), FISME pointed out that the Rules had been framed only for ‘Companies’ and almost all MSME sector, where over 97% of MSMEs were partnerships/ proprietorships, had been kept out.

FISME also vociferously raised the plight of MSME suppliers to buyers undergoing Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) under IBC. Notwithstanding the guarantee of MSMED Act to ensure timely payment of principal and interest on delayed payments, MSME suppliers could get nothing through CIRP as they were treated as operational creditors and their priority was way below in the waterfall mechanism.

Further to spur sustainable industrialization and boost exports, it was suggested to orient policy focus on the development of ‘Medium Enterprises’- units having economy of scale to withstand global competition.      

Currently, Medium sized enterprises are treated like pariah in MSME Ministry and are specifically excluded from most of the support schemes run by the MSME Ministry.

FISME has also proposed to host a Summit for the Medium enterprises to bring the issues of Medium enterprises to fore and facilitate their redressal. (KNN Bureau)

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