Govt exploring new financial institutions to support MSME, says Nitin Gadkari

New Delhi, May 26 (KNN) Union Minister for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Nitin Gadkari has said the government is exploring new financial lending institutions to support small-scale units in terms of financial support.

Gadkari further said that the government is also working towards strengthening the NBFCs which will help small businesses to avail easy credit in the coming time.

The Minister said this while speaking at a meeting via video conferencing on Monday, with the Members of Calcutta Chamber of Commerce on impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs and the measures taken to address the challenges at hand.

Gadkari re-iterated that these are trying times as we are waging a war against COVID-19 pandemic as well as the economic instability caused by it.

He requested all the stakeholders to work in tandem and urged the industry to maintain a positive attitude during this time to tide over this crisis.

The Minister also stressed on usage of PPE (masks, sanitizer etc.) and advised to maintain social distancing norms in personal life and at work places.

Giving an overview of the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus plan, he explained various support measures which has been announced for MSMEs such as collateral free automatic loan, distress fund etc. He said that all these measures will provide the required support to MSMEs to face the current economic challenges.

The Minister also informed them that there has been restructuring of 6 lakh MSMEs till March 2020 and the Ministry is aiming to cover additional 25 lakh until December 2020.

‘’The current contribution of MSMEs in export is 48%, which may be increased to 60%. He further shared that currently 11 crore jobs have been created through MSMEs and this to be increased to 5 crores,’’ he added.

The Union Minister also mentioned that special focus towards export enhancement is the need of the hour.

‘’There is need to reduce our cost on production, logistics etc. to become economically viable,’’ he said.

The Minister shared that the Ministry of MSME is working on two booklets to cover details about last three year’s export and import.