New Delhi, Nov 5 (KNN) Aiming towards resolving the delayed payment issue which blocks credit flow for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), the Ministry of MSME has asked the big private companies and PSUs to show amounts pending with their MSE vendors as well as report reasons of holding up their dues.

According to a notification dated November 2, all payment delays in excess of 45 days have to be reported in the half-yearly statement. The move is expected to exhort both corporate companies and PSUs to make timely payment to SMEs.

The MSME ministry has issued the notification in exercise of powers conferred by Section 9 of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act.

The notification requires companies to show the amount pending and the reasons of delay. But SME firms don't think the government move will help them as it is mere reiterating of the existing law.

Reacting to this, Chandrakant Salunkhe, Founder and President of SME Chamber of India, told KNN India that no MSMEs report against big companies or government agencies or any corporation who have delayed in their payments to the MSMEs fearing to lose their businesses.

Salunkhe said, “Instead of just issuing notification, government should take a legal action against those companies who failed to pay MSMEs. Further, that company should be de-listed from ROC and also asked to pay 50% extra of the amount mentioned in the bill.”

“If the company makes the same mistake for three MSMEs, then it should be de-listed forever,” he said. 

“Government should also focus on the policies made for MSMEs and make sure that all policies reach to the MSME sector,” Salunkhe said.

The ministry of MSME had last year launched a specialised portal for facilitating MSMEs to report cases of the delayed payment of bills to draw the attention of their buyers, the facilitation councils and the ministry of MSME.

They file an online application, which gets reviewed by the facilitation councils, and is also visible to the concerned central ministries, state governments and central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) for proactive actions.

In the portal, as many as 9266 applications have been filed by the MSEs involving an amount of Rs 2617.04 crores. (KNN Bureau)